Palestinian and international activists try and remove an Israeli roadblock in the village of Al-Walaja near Bethlehem. (Jared Malsin, Maan Images)

Imagine if, after an IRA bombing, a British prime minister declared Catholic areas in Northern Ireland to be hostile territory, and threatened to reduce or cut off goods, water, fuel and electricity supplies.

It sounds implausible but the one and a half million residents of the Gaza Strip, an area the size of the Isle of Wight, may soon face this scenario. The Palestinians of Gaza, already imprisoned, their land, air and sea borders totally closed, are now considered by Israel eligible to have their water, electricity and power cut off. Israeli officials insist that humanitarian considerations will be taken into account, though the Israeli record is not one to reassure Palestinians. These were not a concern when Israel bombed Gaza's only power plant last summer.

This Israeli decision comes after more Qassam rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel at local communities such as Sderot and a military barracks, where 69 Israeli soldiers were wounded. Israel has a duty to protect its citizens, but are its responses legitimate, commensurate to the threat or even effective?

This is an expansion of an existing sanctions regime. One of the Israeli Prime Minister's advisers, Dov Weissglass, chillingly described the Israeli policy a year ago: "It's like an appointment with a dietician. The Palestinians will get a lot thinner, but won't die."

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It was no joke. Since Weissglass's comments after the Hamas election victory in 2006, Gazans have indeed learnt how to diet. The World Food Programme lists it as a global hunger hotspot. Out of its 1.5 million residents, 1.1 million have to survive on food handouts. The Israeli journalist, Amira Hass, describes Gazans as being imprisoned in "an enclosed space like battery hens".

The "moderate" Israeli vice-premier, Haim Ramon has pushed for this, describing it as cutting off the "infrastructural oxygen". Imagine a Palestinian mother having to tell her children that there is no electricity because you are not allowed any infrastructural oxygen.

Oxygen is about the only thing that this Israeli government has not considered denying to Gazans. Israel has also stolen hundreds of millions of Palestinian tax dollars. The Israeli group, Physicians for Human Rights, reports that, since the decision was taken, 87 Palestinians in need of medical care have been denied exit from Gaza. Paper was, at one point, a commodity Israel had to ban. "Some 200,000 children will go into our classrooms on 1 September, and won't have the books they need," reported John Ging, the Director of Operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza in August. Perhaps the Israeli army sees paper planes as a threat?

Apologists for Israel argue that, since the removal of Israeli forces from inside Gaza in 2005, it is no longer occupied. This is far from the case, as acknowledged by the UN. Gazans are denied any sovereign control over their territory as Israel controls all entry and exit to Gaza by air, land and sea. Israel's ability to turn on and off vital supplies at will proves the extent of its vice-like control. The prison wardens have merely redeployed from inside the prison to the perimeter. Israeli forces can enter Gaza at will.

To read the full article please visit The Guardian.