Israel moved to limit supplies of electricity and fuel to the Gaza Strip yesterday, to squeeze the territory’s Islamist rulers into cracking down on militants firing rockets into southern Israel.

The decision, effective immediately, was given the green light by Ehud Barak, the Defence Minister. Palestinian militants fire crude but deadly Qassam rockets into Israel almost every day, terrorising the town of Sderot. Israel says 4,000 rockets have been fired in seven years, killing a dozen people and wounding many more.

Israel has directed many military raids into Gaza to hunt down the rocket-firers – who come from all different factions, including Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, and an armed wing of Fatah, which rules the West Bank and is in peace talks with Israel – but the attacks continue.

“We are left with no choice but to take these steps. I assume they will have an effect, even if not immediately,” said Matan Vilnai, the Deputy Defence Minister. “Because this is an entity that is hostile to us, there is no reason for us to supply them with electricity beyond the minimum required to prevent a crisis.”

Gaza uses about 200 megawatts of electricity, of which 120 are provided directly from Israeli power lines, 17 from Egypt, and 65 produced inside the strip. The power cuts are expected to progress gradually. Human rights groups said that reducing essential power supplies was illegal and would only deepen the crisis in Gaza, cutting it off from the outside world after Israel closed its borders and Egypt – Gaza’s neighbour to the south – followed suit, in protest at Hamas’s armed seizure of power last June.

“Cutting electricity or fuel violates the basic principle of international law banning collective punishment,” said Sari Basha, director of the Israeli rights group Gisha. “Making one and a half million Gaza residents suffer in response to the Qassam fire is shortsighted and cruel.” The action could hinder the functioning of vital services such as hospitals, sewage treatment and water pumping stations, she said.

In the southern Gaza Strip, dozens of Palestinians who have been trying to leave to take up studies abroad or seek medical treatment, set up a protest camp yesterday at the closed border crossing into Egypt. One of them, Khaled al Mudallal, has been trying for months to return to Bradford University to finish a course in business studies. He said that as many as 500 people were expected to show up and camp at the border. “The people are saying they’ll campaign until the Rafah border is open. The number is increasing, so hopefully we’ll have some kind of effect.”

Times Recommends

• UN may halt 400-year-old 'freedom of the seas'
• Where the Rosetta belongs can’t be set in stone
• Gas deal on hold, but Ukraine may pay in the end