Omar Shaban / Al-Monitor & Charlie D’Agata / CBS Evening News & Human Rights Watch – 2014-08-12 01:02:04
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/08/gaza-war-reconstruction-infrastructure-destruction.html
Gaza War Bill Estimated at $5 Billion
Omar Shaban / Al-Monitor
(August 11, 2014) — Thirty days after the start of Operation Protective Edge on June 8, a three-day cease-fire was announced, and renewed again on Aug. 11. However, the end of the war will reveal a reality that may be harsher than the war itself. The Gaza Strip, a small densely populated area, is perhaps the only place in the world that suffered three devastating wars requiring extensive reconstruction three times in seven years.
Although the assessment of the losses has yet to begin because of the continuing military operations, initial statistics issued by international and governmental institutions are shocking. These figures are expected to double with the start of the assessment of the losses in the field.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Public Works in Gaza, 7,000 housing units have been destroyed and 30,000 units have been damaged, about 5,000 of which will no longer be inhabitable. This is in addition to the destruction of roads, water and electricity systems, household items, identification papers, photos and certificates, as well as dozens of factories, mosques, schools, health clinics, hospitals and sewage plants.
Moreover, UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refuges) statistics indicate that the Israeli military operation forced 400,000 Gazans to leave their homes, including 250,000 who took refuge in 18 UNRWA schools, and that 150,000 citizens are now living in public parks, hospitals, churches and on the street.
This third war took place in light of the continuous Israeli blockade that was imposed in June 2007 and following the Egyptian campaign to destroy the tunnels between Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula, which used to be an important source of goods and revenues. Losses were estimated just two weeks after the start of this latest Israeli war at $3 billion, according to a statement by Deputy Prime Minister of Economic Affairs Mohammad Mustafa, while the Palestinian unity government estimated these losses at $5 billion.
The reconstruction process will face numerous dilemmas, such as prioritizing relevant interventions and providing necessary funding. An estimated 12,000 displaced families will not be able to return to their homes and will be forced to stay in schools, which implies that classes will not start for at least another year. This will turn the entire Gaza Strip into a massive refugee camp with tens of thousands of tents occupying vast areas of agricultural lands.
It’s also worth mentioning the spread of millions of tons of waste, causing an environmental and health disaster. Another problem is related to the power outages because of the suspension of the only power plant in Gaza after the fuel storage tanks were destroyed. Repairing these tanks will require an estimated year’s work, while ready-to-use tanks cannot be imported given their huge size.
The current available electricity does not exceed 10% of the needs of the Gaza Strip. Electricity is provided by two sources: Egypt supplies 30 megawatts and the Israeli power grid provides 40 megawatts instead of 120 megawatts because of the suspension of seven power lines out of the existing 10 lines.
It’s imperative to provide alternative power sources as soon as possible to accelerate the pace of reconstruction. Available alternatives include repairing the Israeli defected power grid lines, increasing the purchased quantity and/or leasing a floating power plant off the Gaza coast.
On the social level, numerous problems are likely to appear eventually, if not immediately. The displaced will be unable to recognize their destroyed or damaged homes given the lack of maps showing the property boundaries for each home and the loss of supporting documents.
Moreover, problems such as health, psychological and social issues will emerge as a result of the living conditions in overcrowded schools and lack of privacy for each family, besides an insufficient level of available health and psychological services. The social services system will experience extra pressure because of thousands of children newly orphaned and tens of thousands of injured, most of them with a disability.
Gaza’s reconstruction process and its political context will represent a major challenge for the Palestinian political system and a practical test of its ability to meet the people’s expectations and needs. This process is expected to lead to intense competition between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA), not only over donor funds but also the use of money for reaping political gains and improving their position within the circles of the Palestinian street.
The reconstruction process will also entail competition between international and official institutions on mutual coordination efforts and which party is authorized to receive the funds.
Moreover, the polarization in the region between Turkey, Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia will extend to the reconstruction process as was the case in the cease-fire negotiations. This competition will be governed and influenced by the outcome of the truce negotiations: Will the Israeli blockade be lifted? Will this happen gradually, or immediately in its entirety? Will raw materials be allowed to enter from Egypt or Israel, or both?
The delay in facing the repercussions of the war by both parties of the political system — the PA and Hamas — will directly confront them with the tens of thousands affected by the war; those who have lost their homes and family members and cannot afford a delay in assistance. The Palestinian political system faces a historical turning point; either to consecrate the fragile unity or endure an endless state of separation.
Translated by Pascale el Khoury
Can Gaza’s Only Power Plant Be Repaired?
Charlie D’Agata / CBS Evening News
(August 11, 2014) — Twelve days ago, an Israeli air strike on the fuel tanks of Gaza’s only power plant triggered a massive explosion, leaving the region without electricity and water. The repairs depend on Israel lifting its blockade to allow supplies in.
Gaza: Widespread Impact of Power Plant Attack
Human Rights Watch
JERUSALEM (August 9, 2014) — The apparent Israeli shellfire that knocked out the Gaza Strip’s only electrical power plant on July 29, 2014, has worsened the humanitarian crisis for the territory’s 1.7 million people, Human Rights Watch said today. Damaging or destroying a power plant, even if it also served a military purpose, would be an unlawful disproportionate attack under the laws of war, causing far greater civilian harm than military gain.
The shutdown of the Gaza Power Plant has had an impact on the population far beyond power outages, Human Rights Watch said. It has drastically curtailed the pumping of water to households and the treatment of sewage, both of which require electric power.
It also caused hospitals, already straining to handle the surge of war casualties, to increase their reliance on precarious generators. And it has affected the food supply because the lack of power has shut off refrigerators and forced bakeries to reduce their bread production.
“If there were one attack that could be predicted to endanger the health and well-being of the greatest number of people in Gaza, hitting the territory’s sole electricity plant would be it,” said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Deliberately attacking the power plant would be a war crime.”
The spokesperson for the Energy Distribution Authority, Jamal Dardasawi, was quoted in the media as saying that Israeli tank shells hit one of Gaza Power Plant’s fuel storage tanks. The attack caused a massive explosion and a fire that damaged other parts of the facility and took much of the day to extinguish. The plant’s shutdown cut off all power for much of the territory.
For years, Gazans have been living with electricity service for only part of each day, and those who can afford fuel run private generators to provide back-up power. A week after the strike, some service was restored to most neighborhoods, but less than the limited pre-conflict levels.
Shortly after the attack was reported, Israel denied targeting the plant but said its forces might have hit it accidentally. Human Rights Watch was unable to determine whether Palestinian fighters were deployed in the area when the plant was hit. However, Fathi al-Sheikh Khalil, deputy chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Authority in Gaza, said that the al-Nusseirat area, where the plant is located, was being heavily bombed at the time of the strike. Khalil said that Gaza firefighters phoned him to say they could not approach the plant because of the ongoing attacks in the vicinity.
As a result, the fire spread from the small storage tank that was initially hit to a larger one, he said. The strike came at about 3 a.m. on a day of bombardment that was widely described as the heaviest in the first three weeks of fighting. Israeli airstrikes that day destroyed a central mosque and the home of the Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniya, and damaged government buildings and a building that housed the offices of Hamas-controlled television and radio stations. Israeli military operations that day killed about 100 Palestinians.
Israeli military operations have caused massive damage to Gaza’s infrastructure, including housing, factories, hospitals, mosques, and schools. Under the laws of war, power plants, like airports, are considered dual-use objects — civilian objects that also benefit an armed force.
As such, they can be military objectives, subject to attack. However, any attack on a dual-use object must be proportionate. Attacks that can be expected to cause more harm to civilians and civilian structures than the anticipated military gain of the attack are prohibited.
Expected civilian harm encompasses casualties over time as well as immediate civilian losses. Thus any attack on the Gaza Power Plant that would cause a significant shutdown would invariably be disproportionate, violating international humanitarian law. Israel has denied attacking the power plant. Brig. Gen. Yaron Rosen, the commander of the Israeli Air Support and Helicopter Air Division, said on July 29 that Israel “has no interest” in attacking the plant.
“We transfer to them the electricity, we transfer in the gas, we transfer in the food in order to prevent a humanitarian disaster,” he said. “So we attacked the power plant?” Rosen said it was possible Israel hit the power plant accidentally and that an internal investigation was under way.
An August 4 CNN story on the electricity crisis stated that an Israeli Defense Ministry spokesperson had told CNN that Israeli forces were not involved in the attack. Ribhi al-Sheikh, deputy head of the Palestine Water Authority, said the lack of electricity had idled wells — except where generators were able to provide some back-up power — as well as water treatment and desalination plants. Idling wells endangers crops that require water at the hottest time of year.
Most urban households in Gaza need electricity to pump water to rooftop tanks. Ghada Snunu, a worker for a nongovernmental organization, said on August 4 that her home in Gaza City had been without electricity since the attack on the power plant, forcing her family to buy water in jerry cans and to conserve the used household water to empty the toilets.
The collapse of electricity service meant that many Gazans lacked access to the 30 liters of water that is the estimated amount needed per capita daily for drinking, cooking, hygiene and laundering, said Mahmoud Daher, head of the Gaza office of the UN World Health Organization.
Daher said that hospitals have been given priority for scarce electricity, with Shifa, the territory’s largest hospital, getting the most, at 16 hours a day. If the fuel required to run generators were to run out, or a generator to fail, a hospital could lose power.
An official at al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City told Human Rights Watch on August 7 that because of electricity interruptions:
We use a large generator for six to eight hours per day, then have to rely on three smaller ones, because the large one cannot be run full-time. If the large one goes, we don’t know how we would repair it, because of the lack of spare parts. It powers the oxygen station, the hospital’s two elevators, and the air conditioners — this amounts to 80 percent of the hospital’s total electricity consumption.
When we use the smaller generators, they can only power one elevator, and none of the air conditioners, which makes it difficult for staff to work long hours in the August heat, and dangerous for patients.
Israeli forces had reportedly struck the power plant both earlier in the current fighting and in previous conflicts, Human Rights Watch said. The plant had been hit on five occasions since early July, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. It closed briefly after shelling by Israeli forces on July 22 and 23, said Gisha, an Israeli nongovernmental organization.
One of the strikes knocked out one of the plant’s generator sets, said Khalil of the Energy Authority. He said repairing it and the storage tanks will take more than a year, but the plant can make temporary repairs that will enable it to produce 50 megawatts sooner, though at a higher cost.
The power plant, in central Gaza, produced about 60 megawatts of power before the current fighting began, the deputy minister of the Palestine Energy Authority in Ramallah, Abdelkarim Abdeen, told Human Rights Watch.
Khalil said that about two days before the July 29 strike, Israeli authorities had passed a message to him via the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) that the power plant was not a target and that its workers could move safely within the compound. No workers were hurt in the strike, he said. In addition to the output from the plant, Gaza normally gets 120 megawatts of power from Israel via 10 transmission lines and 28 from Egypt via 3 lines.
However, the recent fighting damaged 8 of the Israeli lines and 2 of the Egyptian lines, reducing the supply coming from Israel to 24 megawatts and from Egypt to 18 megawatts as of August 4, Abdeen said.
Damage to the Israeli and Egyptian power lines and then the attack on the power plant cut Gaza’s electricity supply to about 20 percent of the 200 megawatts it had before the conflict began. Gaza’s electricity needs are estimated at 350 megawatts, so power rationing and rolling blackouts were the norm even before war damage slashed the amount of power available.
Since the August 5 ceasefire, electricity power supplies have increased as repair crews have restored eight of the Israeli and all three of the Egyptian lines. Before the ceasefire, conflict conditions had made it hazardous for technicians to perform the necessary repairs, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
As of August 7, households were reportedly getting between three and seven hours of electricity, depending on their location in the Gaza Strip. Eight years ago, on June 28, 2006, Israeli missiles hit the plant eight times, knocking out its transformers, three days after Hamas fighters in Gaza captured the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Israel then delayed or blocked the delivery of material needed to fully repair the Gaza power plant.
Then, in 2008, Israel cut its deliveries of electricity and fuel to Gaza for the declared purpose of pressuring armed groups to end their rocket attacks against civilians in Israel, a form of collective punishment in violation of the laws of war.
Israel has attacked power plants in hostilities outside of Gaza. During its armed conflict with Hezbollah, Israel deliberately bombed electricity plants in southern Lebanon, including on June 24, 1999, February 8, 2000, and May 5, 2000.
The day after the 1999 attack, Israeli Brig. Gen. Dan Halutz said at a news conference that the Lebanese infrastructure targets “had been selected a long time ago,” and that the Israeli “government decided to carry out an attack on Lebanese infrastructure and not only on Hezbollah objectives … to stress that all power brokers in Lebanon who support Hezbollah’s murderous activity are liable to attack.”
The attacks on electricity plants violated the laws of war prohibition against disproportionate attacks because their expected harm to the civilian population was greater than the military gain achieved. The laws of war obligate countries responsible for violations to make full reparations for the loss or injury caused.
This would involve at a minimum providing materials and assistance to permit the prompt restoration of the power plant to its pre-war capacity. Even while fighting continues, Israel should ensure humanitarian agencies have access to restore destroyed power lines, given their crucial humanitarian impact on the civilian population.
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