(10 Mar 2025)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tel Aviv, Israel – 10 March 2025
1.Various of Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha, legal center for freedom of movement, in her office
2.SOUNDBITE (English) Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha, legal center for freedom of movement
"The desalination facility in Deir al-Balah was providing 18,000 cubic meters of water before the cut off of electricity. So last night the electricity was shut off and the plant stopped functioning. Today, it’s expected to start running on backup generators and will be able to provide only 2500 cubic meters of water."
3.Hary pointing at map of Gaza Strip hanging in her office
4.Map showing Deir al-Balah
5.SOUNDBITE (English) Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha, legal center for freedom of movement:
"The desalination facility was one of the main suppliers of water in this area. So prior to the cease fire, you had over a million people in this area. Now there are hundreds of thousands of people there who were reliant on the water that was produced by this desalination facility. And it’s a significant move not just because of the cut off of this particular line, but also because humanitarian aid in general has been cut off from Gaza now for ten days. That includes fuel, and fuel is needed for backup generators. “
6.Map showing Gaza city
7.SOUNDBITE (English) Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha, legal center for freedom of movement:
“Israel is saying that it’s cutting off the supply as a form of pressure, as a tactic to press Hamas to continue in phase one of the cease fire arrangement, to release more hostages. From Gisha’s perspective this is collective punishment. The stopping of humanitarian aid, the deliberate stopping of supply of electricity, of water, of medicine to the civilian population amounts to a war crime. It is Israel’s obligation to supply these things to the civilian population."
8.Hary in her office
STORYLINE:
An Israeli NGO said Monday that Israel’s move to cut off electricity supply to Gaza, affecting a desalination plant producing drinking water is a "collective punishment."
Israel cut off the electricity Sunday, affecting a desalination plant producing drinking water for part of the arid territory.
Hamas called it part of Israel’s “starvation policy."
Israel last week suspended supplies of goods to the territory of more than 2 million Palestinians, an echo of the siege it imposed in the earliest days of the war.
Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha, the legal center for freedom of movement said that “the stopping of humanitarian aid, the deliberate stopping of supply of electricity, of water, of medicine to the civilian population amounts to a war crime.”
The water desalination plant was providing 18,000 cubic meters of water per day for people in the Deir al Balah region, according to Gisha.
Hary said the plant is expected to start running on Monday on backup generators, which will allow it to produce around 2,500 cubic meters of water per day.
Israel is pressing the militant group to accept an extension of the first phase of their ceasefire.
That phase ended last weekend. Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce.
Hamas instead wants to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, which would see the release of remaining hostages from Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and a lasting peace.
Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others.
AP video shot by Ami Bentov
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