AP reports that Israeli “missiles also knocked out five electricity transformers, plunging more than 400,000 people in southern Gaza into darkness, according to the Gaza electricity distribution company.”
MARK ZEITOUN, m.zeitoun at uea.ac.uk, www.uea.ac.uk/dev/People/Academic/zeitoun
Zeitoun is author of “Power and Water in the Middle East: The Hidden Politics of the Palestinian-Israeli Water Conflict.” He is at the School of International Development at the University of East Anglia in the UK.
DANNY MULLER, fugedaboutit at gmail, http://www.mecaforpeace.org
Muller focuses on disaster management and response in the Middle East and Haiti. He was in Gaza in the summer of 2012 and is returning in the coming weeks to coordinate humanitarian aid with the Middle East Children’s Alliance.
He said today: “It’s been reported Israeli air attacks knocked out five electricity transformers, cutting off power to more than 400,000 people. These same people have been living under siege and were only receiving four hours a day of electricity since Israel bombed the electrical infrastructure during Operation Cast Lead. Civil engineers in Gaza tell me that with nonstop attacks it’s very difficult to estimate the damages, and they can only respond to emergencies in coordination with The Red Cross to close major leakages of broken pipes and to replace transformers — hundreds of distribution lines were broken (water, sewage, electricity), as well as water wells, transformers and roads.
“This is collective punishment. These air strikes are directly targeting the civilian population and are war crimes. The United States is culpable for this through its blind support for Israel and its annual $3 billion in aid. The Jerusalem Post recently reported the Israeli army’s chief of staff stating that in the past three years, ‘U.S. taxpayers have contributed more to the Israeli defense budget than Israeli taxpayers.’ This is America’s war against children as much as it is Israel’s.”
See in the Israeli papaer Haaretz “Gaza’s 96 dead include farmers, water sellers and the girl next door.” http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/gaza-s-96-dead-include-farmers-water-sellers-and-the-girl-next-door.premium-1.479110
