JERUSALEM, December 23, 2005 (WAFA)- Human Rights Watch said that Israeli officials reported a proposal to cut the Gaza Strip's electricity supply in retaliation for Palestinian militant groups' rocket attacks on Israel, considering such act would violate laws of war .

In a press release issued Friday, Human Rights Watch said that such act would constitute unlawful collective punishment of Gaza's civilian population, saying that any measures that Israel takes to protect its citizens from these attacks must be consistent with its obligations under international humanitarian law.

It said that cutting electricity to the entire population of Gaza violates a basic principle of international humanitarian law, which restricts a government that has effective control over a territory from attacking or withholding objects essential to the survival of the civilian population.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, revealed that cutting the electricity supply of an already impoverished population would have disastrous humanitarian consequences, adding that a power cut would create severe hardships by interrupting government services, forcing businesses and factories to close, causing food and medicine to spoil, and disrupting the work of hospitals.

"Cutting electricity to Gaza would amount to collective punishment, which is expressly forbidden under international humanitarian law. According to this principle, a person cannot be punished for a crime that they have not personally committed," Human Rights Watch concluded.

H.M. (21:23 P) (19:23 GMT)