Israel plans to begin cutting fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip on Sunday in response to rockets being launched from Gaza onto Israeli communities.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved the new restrictions on Thursday, and Defense officials and the government’s legal adviser are discussing the measures on Sunday.
Israeli human rights organizations want to challenge the decision in Israeli courts on the grounds that the ruling is a collective punishment against the people of Gaza.
The Defense Ministry plans to begin cutting fuel on Sunday and start initiating power cuts in the next few days.
The measure is aimed at pressuring the Hamas leadership in Gaza to stop cells from launching Qassam missiles onto Israeli towns.
Israel says more than a 1,000 rockets and mortars have been fired onto Israeli territory since the beginning of the year.
The Qassams are a basic home-made rockets which are inaccurate, but they have caused several deaths and their psychological impact on the targeted communities is huge.
Israel declared the Gaza Strip a hostile entity last month after Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in June in an armed coup.
The Palestinian territories are now effectively split into two areas, with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud ‘Abbas’ government controlling the West Bank and Hamas controlling the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, ‘Abbas said Hamas was planning to take over the West Bank in the same way it took over Gaza.
“We have information that Hamas wants to do in the West Bank what it did in Gaza, but they will fail,” he told the Kuwaiti newspaper A-Rai.
He added there were “known international parties” supporting Hamas in its efforts.