New Delhi: The United Nations has called on Israel to reconsider declare Gaza as an “enemy entity.”
The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon asked Israel to reverse its decision to cut vital services to the besieged Gaza Strip, saying that collective punishment is a violation of international law.
His words were reiterated by the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who said, "We think the Gaza people should not be deprived of basic necessities."
On Wednesday the Israeli cabinet voted to progressively tighten its existing blockade of Gaza's 1.4 million people in a bid to halt militant rocket fire from Gaza.
Israel plans to cut electricity and fuel supplies and to tighten restrictions on goods, money and people which have left almost all of Gaza dependent on international aid.
Only essential food, medicine and water would be allowed into the strip, to avoid causing human suffering, Israel said.
Eleven Israelis, including four children, have been killed by rockets and mortars fired from the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip since the present conflict began seven years ago.
In the past year more than 450 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, according to the Israeli rights group B'Tselem, about half of them civilians and almost 100 of them children. In the same period 11 Israelis, including eight civilians, were killed.
The New York-based group Human Rights Watch said that the Palestinian rocket fire is also in breach of the laws of war but that this did not excuse Israel from its duty under the Geneva Conventions to protect civilians living under its military rule.
Writing on Thursday in Israel's leading daily Yedioth Ahronoth, commentator Yaron London said the people of Gaza support militant groups and were therefore "equivalent to arms bearers, even if they do not all carry means of destruction on their body.”
(With agency inputs)
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