The Israeli attorney general halted the government's plans to cut back on electricity to the Gaza Strip, demanding more work be done to prevent humanitarian harm.
Meni Mazuz's decision on Monday came after 10 human rights groups petitioned Israel's Supreme Court to stop the cutbacks on the grounds that they constitute collective punishment violating UN principles.
On Sunday, Israel reduced fuel supplies to Gaza, but government officials said that the planned electricity cuts would have to await the outcome of the court case.
Last month the Israeli government declared Gaza a "hostile entity" and approved the plan for cutoffs in an effort to halt the daily rocket barrages into southern Israel.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave the final go-ahead for the sanctions last week.
The Justice Ministry said in a statement late on Monday that Mazuz determined that "in the case of electricity cutoff, more staff work needs to be done by the defense establishment to determine the possibility of implementing this measure to comply with the government decision in the matter, which qualified these measures over humanitarian harm to the civilian population."
The government has until tomorrow to respond to the petition by the human rights groups. The Israeli court did not accept their appeal for an immediate injunction to halt the measures.
The EU criticized Israel's decision to cut back fuel and electricity supplies to Gaza on Monday, calling the measures collective punishment.
EU commissioner for external relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner said she was "very concerned" about the decision during a visit to Jerusalem on Monday.
While noting the "distress" caused to Israelis by Palestinian rocket fire, she said: "I think collective punishment is never a solution."
She said she had told Israeli officials: "We don't want the population to suffer."
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS