Click here for the November rolling update.
October 31
- “Obviously, the lack of electricity and fuel and the water supply are inextricably linked […] If Israel won’t let fuel in, it means the available water can’t get distributed. We’re talking about a denial of the most basic necessity.”
Read the full article ‘Alarming and Catastrophic’: This Is What Aid to Gaza Was Like Before the War – and Now from Haaretz, here.
October 30
- The amount of aid entering Gaza from Egypt falls far short of meeting the needs of Gaza’s civilian population, which have been compounded by weeks of bombardment, blockade and electricity blackout.
Read the full update Insufficient Aid, here
October 29
- “The Gaza Strip faces a dire situation due to a lack of fuel, food, water and medicine being allowed in since the war erupted on October 7. Mirian Marmur, of Israeli NGO Gisha, explains that ‘atrocities committed by Hamas or other actors do not absolve Israel of its legal obligations'”
Read the full article ‘Alarming and Catastrophic’: This Is What Aid to Gaza Was Like Before the War – and Now, here
October 28
- Miriam Marmur, advocacy director of Gisha, an Israeli human rights organisation which calls for the freedom of movement of Palestinians, said the situation was “unparalleled”.“Of course, at any given point, there are thousands of Palestinians that are being held in administrative detention by Israel,” she told Al Jazeera. “But these are the first Palestinians to be held en masse. The nature of their detention, the revocation of people’s permits and the fact that Israel is so far refusing to divulge any information about where they are … that is not something I have seen before,” she said.Marmur added that the arrests were “illegal and appear to be acts of vengeance which stand in violation of international law”.
Read the full article Thousands of Gaza workers go ‘missing’ in Israel amid wartime mass arrests on AlJazeera, here
October 27
- “Electricity was scarce in Gaza even before the war. Roughly one-third of the strip’s electricity supply came from a power plant that ran on industrial diesel fuel imported from Israel, while two-thirds came from electricity lines that extended from Israel, according to Gisha, an Israeli nonprofit organization focused on Gaza. Residents and businesses relying only on the municipal electricity grid got power for roughly 12 to 15 hours a day.”
Read the full article Gaza Hospitals, Shelters Cut Back on Services as Fuel Runs Short, here
October 26
- “’Israel has disappeared thousands of residents of the Gaza Strip who [entered it] lawfully,’ said Attorney Daniel Shenhar of HaMoked and Attorney Osnat Cohen-Lifshitz representing Gisha-Legal Center for Protection of Movement”
Read the full article Gazan Workers Describe Inhuman Treatment at Israeli Detention Centers Since Outbreak of War, here
October 25
- “The Israeli NGO Gisha – Local Centers for Freedom of Movement, also warned last week about the state of vital infrastructure in Gaza: ‘Without electricity, water can’t be pumped and distributed. Israel’s bombardments have likely caused extensive damage to Gaza’s water infrastructure, which will make it difficult to access water even if the electricity and fuel supply is restored.’”
Read the full article ‘I Wrote My Children’s Names on Their Bodies. At Least They’ll Identify Them Before Burial,’ here.
October 23
- Six human rights organizations filed an urgent petition (Hebrew) to Israel’s High Court for a habeas corpus injunction regarding the thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip currently being held by Israel in detention centers against their will and without legal basis. In the petition, the organizations request that the court instruct the Israeli army, Prison Service and the Israel Police to disclose the names and whereabouts of all Gaza residents being held in Israeli detention centers and release any persons unlawfully detained to the West Bank until they are able to return to Gaza.
For the press release, click here.
October 21
- Don’t paint the 20 humanitarian trucks as relief:
Gaza needs the killing to stop. Gaza needs FUEL for generators running 24/7 at hospitals, water & sanitation infrastructure & for ambulances. Aid must not be limited in amount or area of delivery. Israel continues to block fuel & electricity supply. - Israel’s evacuation order is an ineffective warning and does not in any way detract from Israel’s responsibilities under international humanitarian law to protect civilians who remain in the north of the Strip.
Read the Reuters article “Israel tells Gazans to move south or risk being seen as ‘terrorist’ partner,” here.
October 20
- “The arrested workers are being held against their will in Israeli incarceration facilities” and “being deprived [of] their basic rights, including the right to legal representation.”
Read the full article, here.
October 19
- Israel refuses to reveal information about thousands of Gaza residents being held in Israeli detention facilities
Read our full update, here. - Israel has framed the permits as a humanitarian gesture, according to Miriam Marmur, the director of public advocacy at the Israeli human rights organization Gisha. However, critics have long maintained that the economic benefit of the permits does not testify to Israeli magnanimity, especially since, as Marmur said, the “decades of movement restrictions preceding the permits [constitute] a form of economic warfare.” According to Marmur, under international law, Israel actually has an “obligation as an occupying power to facilitate the movement and access Palestinians need to live a normal life under occupation.” Moreover, critics have pointed out that the permits Israel does provide are frequently used by employers and middlemen to exploit Palestinian labor, and that the permit system does not protect Palestinians’ basic labor rights.Read the full article Gazan Workers Stuck in Purgatory After Israel Revokes Permits, here
October 18
- “There is no power in the electric grid whatsoever in Gaza. Yesterday reports said that Israel allowed a little water into 1 area, ∼4% of what was coming in before & isn’t meeting needs. Without electricity, people can’t pump water to their homes.”
Read the full article, here.
October 17
- The Situation in Gaza: A Briefing
A webinar hosted by the foundation for Middle East Peace in conversation with Gisha’s Executive Director, Tania Hary; Political Activist, Nour Odeh; Human Rights Watch Director in Israel and Palestine, Omar Shakir.
Watch the full webinar, here. - The calls being sounded in Israel, including by politicians & analysts, whereby all Gaza residents (half of whom are children!) must pay for the horrific crimes by armed militants in the south, are concerted attempts to legitimize killing of and deliberate harm to civilians in Gaza.
Read the full article from the NYT, here
October 16
- Without electricity, water can’t be pumped and distributed. Israel’s bombardments have likely caused extensive damage to Gaza’s water infrastructure, which will make it difficult to access water even if the electricity and fuel supply is restored. Israel’s reported decision to resume partial supply of water to southern Gaza ignores hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are not in the south. According to OCHAOPT, the last of Gaza’s water desalination facilities shut down yesterday for lack of electricity. It is not yet known how much water, if any, Israel is allowing into Gaza or how many residents can access it. Access to electricity and to safe drinking water must be enabled without delay.
October 15
- “‘The choke-hold has seen taps run dry across the territory. When water does trickle from pipes, the meager flow lasts no more than 30 minutes each day and is so contaminated with sewage and seawater that it’s undrinkable’, residents said.”
“‘There really can’t be a justification for this kind of targeting of civilians,’ said Miriam Marmur, a spokesperson for Gisha, an Israeli human rights group.” Read AP’s article, “Lack of water worsens misery in besieged Gaza as Israeli airstrikes continue,” here.
October 13
Following Israel’s order to evacuate all 1.2 million Palestinian residents of Northern Gaza
- The transfer of 1.1 million people in Gaza cannot feasibly be carried out, will cause grave harm and appears to be another attempt by Israel to absolve itself of any responsibility for mass civilian casualties. This spells an unspeakable catastrophe.Read Gisha’s Press Release, “Urgent call for intervention: Further atrocities must be prevented,” here.
- The WHO said on Friday local health authorities in Gaza had informed it that it was impossible to evacuate vulnerable hospital patients from northern Gaza after Israel’s military called for civilians to relocate south within 24 hours.”Read the full article, here.
October 12
- Joint statement with other civil society organizations in Israel.
Read in full, here. - “This is an unprecedented scope of destruction. Israeli decisions to cut electricity, fuel, food and medicine supplies severely compound the risks to Palestinians and threaten to greatly increase the toll in human life.”
Miriam Marmur, Gisha’s director of public advocacy to AP.
Read the full article, here.
October 11
- Blackout In Gaza. As of today, Gaza’s power plant has stopped operating for lack of fuel, meaning there is no supply of energy through Gaza’s electrical grid and the Strip has been plunged into a total blackout. This spells an unprecedented humanitarian disaster. Read the full update, here.
October 10
- Targeting civilians is a war crime. Read Gisha’s full update, here.
October 9
- In response to the Israeli Minister of Energy, Israel Katz, decision to cut electricity and water supply from Israel to Gaza: The deliberate targeting of civilians is a war crime. The massacres in the south of Israel and in Gaza are heinous and horrifying. Israel’s indiscriminate bombing and its decision to cut the supply of water, food & electricity to Gaza are cruel, illegal acts of retaliation.
- Gisha’s executive director, Tania Hary, in the New York Times’ article, A ‘complete siege’ of Gaza would come on top of a 16-year blockade enforced by Israel and Egypt:“Before things were restricted, now they are blocked entirely. A ‘complete siege’ of Gaza would come on top of a 16-year blockade enforced by Israel and Egypt.” Read the full article, here.
October 7
- A terrible and horrifying day. The targeting of civilians is forbidden and completely unacceptable. Civilians must be protected, in Israel and in Gaza.