# What does international law say about supplying electricity and water to Gaza? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 18, 2014, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-international-law-say-about-supplying-electricity-and-water-to-gaza/693455 "2014-07-18T14:25:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2014, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-international-law-say-about-supplying-electricity-and-water-to-gaza/693455/41 "2014-07-20T15:21:52Z")
Another question: Hasn’t the UN declared the Gaza Strip a refugee camp, or that it contains refugee camps? Wouldn’t that give “special” status as far as international law is concerned? ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2014, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-international-law-say-about-supplying-electricity-and-water-to-gaza/693455/42 "2014-07-20T15:56:52Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > Another question: Hasn’t the UN declared the Gaza Strip a refugee camp, or that it contains refugee camps? Wouldn’t that give “special” status as far as international law is concerned? Gaza isn’t a refugee camp, but yes it contains them. Roughly 50% of Gazans still live in refugee camps and about 70% are still classified as refugees. Granted, Palestinians have special rules when it comes to the classification of refugee status. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Cashless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Johnny\_Cashless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Cashless)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2014, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-international-law-say-about-supplying-electricity-and-water-to-gaza/693455/43 "2014-07-20T16:06:44Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > Another question: Hasn’t the UN declared the Gaza Strip a refugee camp, or that it contains refugee camps? Wouldn’t that give “special” status as far as international law is concerned? Says Wikipedia: > [@](#): > > The Gaza Strip has 8 refugee camps and 1,221,110 registered refugees You may note those camps are coming up for 70 years since creation. > **[Palestinian refugee camps](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_refugee_camps#Gaza_Strip)** > > Palestinian refugee camps were first established to accommodate Palestinians who were displaced by the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight during the 1948 Palestine war. Camps were established by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. A subsequent wave of Palestinian refugees were created in the Naksa after the Six-Day War in 1967. > There are 68 Palestinian refugee camps in total, 58 official and 10 unofficial, ten of ... ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2014, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-international-law-say-about-supplying-electricity-and-water-to-gaza/693455/44 "2014-07-20T20:39:20Z")
> [@Johnny\_Cashless](#): > > No cite. For one so politely mannered and insistent on me providing a cite for an NBC reporter, that is rather disappointing. > > The thing is I do know enough of that expulsion to know you were talking out your ass - as would anyone interested in how the PLO came to reside in camps around Beirut. > > How does that egg taste? Johnny, I’m going to go easy on you because you’re new. The SDMB - and especially Great Debates - is a place where we value civility. It is expected that posters will not attack other posters, but rather their arguments. You’ve done so in a few threads and - as I said - you’ve gotten a pass up to this point. But please throttle it back a bit and focus on the argument. It is also expressly forbidden to accuse another poster of lying in any way. I realize you may not have meant the above post that way, but it could certainly be taken as such. Please don’t do so again. Still, with that said, welcome to the SDMB. I hope you have a long and enlightening stay here. There’s no where quite like it. Jonathan Chance Moderator Great Debates ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-international-law-say-about-supplying-electricity-and-water-to-gaza/693455/45 "2014-07-21T02:04:23Z")
> **[Hamas’s own goal](https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Editorials/Hamass-own-goal-362810)** Neither Gaza nor the Ramallah half of the Palestinian Authority pays for the power consumed. Gaza alone, it’s estimated, owes the Israel Electric Corporation NIS 220 million (out of the staggering NIS1.5 billion of unpaid Palestinian debts). As I said, Israelis are insane. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-international-law-say-about-supplying-electricity-and-water-to-gaza/693455.md?page=2)