GAZA STRIP
UN warns of dire consequences after Israel cuts power to Gaza
Displaced Palestinian children queue to get a portion of cooked food from a charity kitchen in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, ahead of the iftar fast-breaking meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on March 9, 2025.
The United Nations said Monday that Israel's decision to cut off electricity to Gaza was "very concerning", warning that civilians in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory would face dire consequences.
Israel has halted aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip and has now cut its electricity supply, disconnecting the only power line to a water desalination plant in order to ramp up pressure on Hamas.
"Israel's decision to cut off electricity to Gaza following its ban last week on the entry of all humanitarian assistance and other necessities of life, including fuel needed to operate generators, is very concerning," Seif Magango, spokesman for the U.N. human rights office, told AFP in an email.
"With no electricity and with fuel being blocked, Gaza's remaining water desalination plants, healthcare facilities, and bakeries are at risk of eventually shutting down, with dire consequences for civilians."
Magango said that as the occupying power, Israel had a legal obligation to ensure the provision of the necessities of life for Palestinians living under its control.
"In addition, blocking access to the necessities of life for civilians intended to pressure a party to an armed conflict through hardship imposed on the civilian population as a whole raises serious concerns of collective punishment," he added.
Gulf neighbours Saudi Arabia and Qatar on Tuesday condemned Israel's decision to cut electricity supplies to Gaza.
Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry expressed "condemnation in the strongest terms of the Israeli occupation authorities' use of collective punishment against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by cutting off electricity to the area".
A Qatari statement said the wealthy Gulf state "strongly condemns the Israeli occupation's act of cutting electricity to the Gaza Strip, considering it a blatant violation of international humanitarian law".
Saudi Arabia called on the international community to "take urgent actions immediately", while Qatar also urged "immediate action to provide the necessary protection for the Palestinian people".
Israel's negotiating team left for Qatar on Monday to attend talks aimed at extending the fragile Gaza ceasefire.
The first phase of the truce deal expired on March 1 with no agreement on subsequent stages to secure a lasting end to the war that erupted with Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
'Only a Palestinian state could replace UNRWA'
The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees on Monday rejected Israel's assertion that other organisations could replace it in Gaza, insisting that only a Palestinian state "institution" could take over.
Israel has banned UNRWA from operating in Gaza and agency chief Philippe Lazzarini hit back after Israel's ambassador Daniel Meron told reporters that his country was "working to find substitutes to the work of UNRWA inside Gaza".
Israel was actively "encouraging U.N. agencies and NGOs to take over," he said.
Lazzarini told reporters that UNRWA was still "it can't be an NGO, it can't be another U.N. agency".
"The only viable alternative are capable Palestinian institutions ... in a Palestinian state."
For more than seven decades, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees has provided aid and assistance to Palestinian refugees across the Middle East.
But after Israel said some UNRWA staff took part in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, Israeli legislation severing ties with the agency came into force at the end of January.
UNRWA has been banned from operating on Israeli soil and from contacting Israeli officials.
The U.N. says the move would hamper vital services delivered by the agency in Gaza, which has been ravaged by 15 months of war.
UNRWA is "continuing to operate in Gaza. We are continuing to operate in the West Bank", Lazzarini said.
The agency said Sunday that since January it had "delivered food assistance to the entire population of the Gaza Strip". It also carried out "over 412,000 health consultations and reached more than half a million people with shelter and non-food items".