the Oslo Accords, Israel has a legal duty to protect the Palestinian inhabitants of the oPt, including ensuring access to adequate services. The Oslo Accords include numerous provisions regarding the use of and access to natural resources, as well as the provision of services connected to these natural resources. Annex III, Protocol on Israeli-Palestinian Cooperation in Economic and Development Programs, and Annex IV, Protocol on IsraeliPalestinian Cooperation Concerning Regional Development Programs, of the 1993 Oslo Accords addresses cooperation in the fields of water, electricity, energy, finance, transport and communication, and the creation of an economic development program. Annex IV, moreover, cites the establishment of a joint Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian Plan for coordinated exploitation of the Dead Sea area, water development projects, interconnection of electricity grids, and the regional cooperation for the transfer, distribution and industrial extraction of gas, oil and other energy resources. Article XIV of Annex I regulates the security along the coastline to the Sea of Gaza, which includes the division of the sea off the coast of the Gaza Strip into three Maritime Activity Zones. Annex III of the 1995 Oslo Accords includes additional provisions on electricity, environmental protection, fisheries, forests, gas, fuel and petroleum, quarries and mines, and water and sewage. Most provisions include the gradual transfer of powers and responsibilities “to Palestinian jurisdiction that will cover West Bank and Gaza Strip territory.” Besides this gradual transfer not taking place, and therefore, making many of these provisions obsolete, the Accords include provisions that directly contradict international law. For example, Article 12(B)(3) of Annex III of the 1995 Oslo Accords establishes that, “Both sides will strive to utilize and exploit the natural resources, pursuant to their own environmental and developmental policies.” This regulation contradicts the aforementioned IHL provision establishing the prohibition on the Occupying Power to exploit the natural resources of occupied territory for its own benefit or the benefit of its own civilian population in such territory. This and other provisions found in both the Oslo I and II Accords put into question the current validity of these provisions, especially in light of the temporary nature of the Accords. 19

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