A/HRC/7/76 page 6 Humanitarian Affairs, only 10 per cent of the amount of goods that entered Gaza a year ago were being permitted to enter by 15 February 2008. As a result, the Gaza Strip was on the brink of a humanitarian disaster.4 14. With regard to access to fuel and electricity, several factors prior to the reporting period led to a significant reduction in the availability of electricity, including the bombing, on 28 June 2006, of the six transformers of the Gaza Strip power plant and the restrictions of fuel supplies to Gaza, which began on 28 October 2007 in the context of sanctions designed to pressure Palestinian militants into stopping launching rockets and mortars from Gaza into Israel. The situation became more critical on 19 January, when Israel decided to impose a total cut on fuel supplies to the Strip in response to a series of rocket attacks by Palestinian militants against southern Israel over several days. On 20 January, the main power plant in Gaza completely shut down. On 22 January, Israel once again allowed fuel and medical supplies into Gaza.5 15. On 30 January 2008, the Israeli High Court of Justice rejected a petition against the Israeli plan to reduce the supply of electricity and fuel to the Gaza Strip, which had already been in force for several months.6 Following the Israeli High Court ruling, on 7 February, the Ministry of Defense ordered the Israel Electricity Company to reduce its supply to Gaza by around 0.5 megawatts per day. The cut was less than the 1.5 megawatts originally proposed, but still compounded the existing shortfall of 60 megawatts per day. 16. According to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, electricity cuts to Gaza were made in response to the continued and indiscriminate firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel. The Ministry also declared that the economic sanctions were part of a policy of “economic warfare as a life-saving alternative to large-scale ground operations”. The Ministry further argued that the only obligation of Israel to the civilian population in Gaza was to avoid a humanitarian crisis, and that it was up to the authorities in Gaza to prioritize the distribution of electricity, with 4 Visiting Ramallah, United Nations Humanitarian Chief Voices Solidarity with Suffering People, at www.un.org/news. 5 The Humanitarian Monitor, January 2008. See www.ochaopt.org/documents/ Humanitarian_Monitor_Jan_08.pdf. 6 While the Court confirmed that the State of Israel was obligated to act against terrorist organizations in the framework of the law and in accordance with the provisions of international law, and to refrain from intentionally harming the civilian population of the Gaza Strip, it found that, “in light of all the information presented before [the Court] with regard to the supply of electricity to the Gaza Strip, we are of the opinion that the amount of industrial diesel that the State declared that it intends to supply, as well as the electricity supplied on an ongoing basis through the electrical lines from Israel, are sufficient to meet the essential humanitarian needs of the Gaza Strip at this time”, High Court ruling 9132/07, para. 22. (Unofficial translation into English by Gisha-Legal Center for Freedom of Movement.)