Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has claimed that Israel had “instrumentalised humanitarian needs” in Gaza, with its decision to halt aid and cut electricity into the Palestinian territory, AFP reports.

“Israeli authorities are yet again normalising the use of aid as a negotiation tool,” MSF emergency coordinator Myriam Laaroussi said in a statement. “This is outrageous. Humanitarian aid should never be used as a bargaining chip in war.”

Describing the move as “collective punishment”, MSF demanded that Israel “end this inhumane blockade of the Strip”.

It warned that with the suspension of electricity supply, the water desalination plant in Khan Yunis in the south of the territory had already run out of fuel.

“The plant has dropped its production from 17 million to 2.5 million litres per day,” its statement said.

“This decision to cut electricity will gradually severely impact the public water supply” to Gaza’s some 2.4 million people, who are already caught in a dire humanitarian crisis, it said.

“The blockade on all supplies is inevitably hurting hundreds of thousands of people and is having deadly consequences,” Laaroussi said.