While Israel claims that it is waging its campaign against Hamas in Gaza not to overthrow it but to “restore deterrence,” the bombing campaign, as always, threatens the entire population of Gaza. Israeli officials, in fact, are frankly admitting that the campaign is cutting off supplies of electricity and fresh water to the 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip while attempting to deflect blame, at least to some degree to Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
According to the Times of Israel, an Israeli defense official told reporters on May 13 that Gaza will run out of fuel for its electricity generators on Sunday, May 16. Fuel supplies through the Kerem Shalom crossing were cut off, after rockets began flying out of Gaza into Israel this week, reducing the available power supply from an already inadequate 16 hours per day to just 5 hours. Israeli military officials also claim that Hamas rockets have damaged power lines leading from Israel, cutting more than 230,000 Gazans off from electricity.
