Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan condemn Israeli electricity cut to Gaza water plant
Arab states call for immediate resumption of aid and power amid Israeli pressure campaign to free hostages, as Rubio discusses Strip’s reconstruction in Riyadh
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan on Tuesday condemned Israel’s decision to cut its supply of electricity to a water desalination plant in the Gaza Strip, calling for the international community to take action as Israel attempts to pressure the Hamas terror group into releasing captives held there.
The countries’ separate statements came a day after Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman hosted US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for talks in Riyadh on the reconstruction of Gaza.
Israel announced on Sunday it was disconnecting the only power line to the plant — which had been reconnected to the Israeli electric grid last year — in an effort to pressure the Hamas terror group into releasing hostages amid an apparent impasse in hostage-truce talks.
The plant serves more than 600,000 Gaza residents through tankers or the networks of Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis governorates in central and southern Gaza, respectively. It is one of three such seawater processing facilities in the Gaza Strip, which before the war met around 15 percent of the 2 million-plus residents’ need for water.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry expressed “condemnation in the strongest terms of the Israeli occupation authorities’ use of collective punishment against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by cutting off electricity to the area.”
The country called on the international community to “take urgent actions immediately,” while Qatar also urged “immediate action to provide the necessary protection for the Palestinian people.”
A Qatari foreign ministry statement said the Gulf state “strongly condemns the Israeli occupation’s act of cutting electricity to the Gaza Strip, considering it a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.”
Jordanian foreign ministry spokesman Sufyan Qudah called the electricity cut “a clear continuation of the policy of starvation and siege imposed by Israel,” about a week after Israeli authorities blocked the entry of aid into Gaza.
Israel has said there is enough aid already accumulated in Gaza to meet the needs of its population, and that Hamas uses the supply of goods to bolster its control of the enclave and fund its attacks on Israel.
Jordan’s Qudah called on the world “to assume its legal and moral responsibilities, and oblige Israel to continue with the ceasefire agreement… restore electricity to Gaza” and reopen border crossings for aid deliveries.
The United Nations has warned of “dire consequences” for Gaza’s population, while Britain said it was “deeply concerned” by the Israeli move to cut off aid on March 1.
Israeli negotiators were sent to Qatar on Monday amid efforts to extend a fragile truce begun in January that has largely halted the war in Gaza, which was triggered by the Hamas-led onslaught on October 7, 2023.
Rubio goes to Saudi Arabia to talk Gaza reconstruction
Also Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed the “reconstruction of Gaza” during their meeting in Riyadh, the State Department said in a readout.
Rubio thanked the Saudi leader for “hosting Arab countries,” the State Department said in an apparent reference to the summit Riyadh hosted for Arab leaders last month to prepare for another confab held in Cairo last week, where Egypt unveiled its plan for the postwar management of Gaza.
The Trump administration has called the plan a good start, while indicating that it doesn’t sufficiently address Hamas’s role, which Washington wants to be nonexistent.
Rubio “reiterated [to MBS] the United States’ firm commitment that any solution to the situation in Gaza must not include any role for Hamas,” the US readout added.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
