The decision by Israel’s Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to suspend a plan to cut electrical power to the Gaza Strip raises questions about Israel’s responsibilities under international humanitarian law.

Although General Mazuz approved other economic sanctions on the Hamas-controlled territory, he said the plan to reduce power to Gaza needed further scrutiny because of the possible impact on the population.

Israel began restricting fuel shipments to Gaza on Sunday, claiming that the decision was in response to Palestinian rocket fire on Israeli towns from Gaza. According to Reuters, Israeli defense officials say fuel supplies would be cut by up to 14 percent, depending on the type of fuel. An official from the European Union, which funds fuel oil to Gaza's only electricity generating plant, said on Sunday that deliveries to the plant were down by about a quarter.

Israel’s punitive measures -- implemented one month after Israel declared Gaza a “hostile entity” -- have been strongly condemned by human rights groups, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon - who slammed Israel’s actions as “unacceptable” -- and the European Union External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who warned Israel against imposing “collective punishment” on the 1.5 million Palestinians in the coastal strip.

Hamas, which seized Gaza from rival Fatah in June, slammed what it called Israel’s “blackmail” and predicted an “explosion” that would have serious consequences across the Middle East.

Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the Fatah government in the occupied West Bank, also said that Israel’s measures were “hurting our people in the Gaza Strip”.

Although Israel withdrew its settlers and troops from Gaza in 2005, it’s still regarded as an occupying power as it retains control over Gaza's airspace and coastline, and over its own border with the coastal strip. It also controls the flow of goods, including fuel and energy supplies, in and out of the territory.

In a study on the legal aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the BBC in 2006, international lawyer Noam Lubell acknowledged that Israel is still an occupying power in Gaza.

According to the BBC, an occupying power is obliged to follow the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, which protects the civilian population. The United Nations Security Council held in 1979 that the Fourth Convention did apply in the territories seized by Israel in 1967.

However, Israel refuses to abide by the convention in the occupied territories, claiming that the conventions refer to occupied state sovereign territories.

But Israel’s recent declaration that Gaza is a “hostile entity” and its frequent military operations inside the strip oblige it to respect the 1977 additional protocols to the Fourth Convention, which protect civilian populations in time of conflicts that fall short of war.

Although Israel has never signed these protocols, the international community still expects it to respect them.

Another point is whether Israel’s collective measures distinguish between the civilian population and the Palestinian resistance. Article 48 of the additional protocol is clear about this issue: “... The Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objective."

However, Israel argues that it’s not obliged to help a "hostile" territory.

Human Rights Watch strongly rejects this argument: "A mere declaration does not change the facts on the ground that impose on Israel the status and obligations of an occupying power," said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of its Middle East division.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Palestinian girl holds a lamp in her house after the electricity supply was cut off in Gaza City, August 2007