Susuto

jpost
The human rights organization Gisha charged on Thursday that the refusal of the army to allow fuel, cooking gas and other commodities into the Gaza Strip constitutes collective punishment of 1.5 million civilians.

In a letter dated November 16 and sent to Ahaz Ben-Ari, the legal adviser of Israel’s defense ministry, Gisha charged that in the past, when the army closed the border crossings, it was said to have been due to a specific security threat against soldiers and employees at the crossings. This was clearly not the case now, Ilem charged.

In response to an earlier letter from Gisha, Ben-Ari wrote: “The supply of industrial diesel to the Gaza Strip has been withheld in the past few days because of the salvoes of Kassam rockets that have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel. This fire, which is aimed at civilian targets inside Israeli territory, also endangers the activities involved in supplying the goods, including fuel.”

Gisha wrote that Ben-Ari had failed to explain the connection between the firing of rockets into Israel - which it confirms is illegal because the weapons are aimed at innocent Israeli civilians - and the supply of fuel and other goods that are vital to civilians in Gaza.