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The humanitarian crisis in Gaza just took a turn for the worse.

As if life couldn’t get any worse for the millions of innocent civilians caught in the Israeli-Hamas conflict, an Israeli airstrike hit Gaza strip’s last functioning power plant yesterday. (pictured above)

The only other sources of electricity residents in Gaza had access to — power lines coming from Israel — have been severed since fighting began weeks ago leaving only two of eight still functioning. What does this mean? This means that many of the 1.8 million innocent people that live in the Gaza strip will be without basic resources such as electricity, and perhaps even more concerning, clean water.

According to the Washington Post,

“The plant is Gaza’s primary source of electricity, powering sewage treatment systems, water pumps and hospitals, said Dardasawi, the Palestinian official. It is especially important, he added, because six of eight electricity supply lines that run from Israel were damaged. Egypt also supplies some electricity, he added, but hardly enough to power the border town of Rafah.”

The power plant in middle of Gaza Strip hit by Israeli air strike. Gaza is without electricity now. pic.twitter.com/xH47wtbl2J — Sudarsan Raghavan (@africawriter) July 29, 2014

Regardless of how you feel about Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza, it’s impossible to condone actions which cut power from hospitals and clean water from children.

Twenty more innocent people were killed when Israel bombed a school on Wednesday, which the U.N. said violated international law. While many people have claimed that Hamas caused this tragedy by hiding rockets in schools and using women and children as human shields, these claims have turned out to be nothing more than conspiracy theories with no substance.

The good news is that Israel and Hamas just agreed to a 72 hour cease fire, which will give people on both sides a much needed break in the violence.

The world must call on Israel and Hamas to end this tragic conflict that is taking innocent life. It’s time for both parties to come the the negotiation table; and international pressure is much needed to accomplish this.

Update: Aug 1st 5:40am CST Fighting resumes in Gaza after start of 72-hour ceasefire

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nick Bernabe is the owner and lead editor of the website TheAntiMedia.org, an activist, blogger, and the original founder and spokesman of the March Against Monsanto movement. He is also a guest contributor to The Mind Unleashed. Please follow his Facebook page by clicking here.

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