Gaza: Two million Palestinians without electricity

Gaza: Two million Palestinians without electricity

UN warns of disastrous humanitarian consequences for two million Palestinians if power cuts continue in the Gaza Strip.

Life-saving, water, health, sanitation and municipal systems and supply networks in Gaza Strip are not being delivered to two million people because of blackouts. The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, Robert Piper, was warned that "A further increase in the length of blackouts is likely to lead to a total collapse of basic services, including critical functions in the health, water and sanitation sectors."

The only power plant in Gaza has run out of fuel and vital school and hospital services are at risk in the most densely populated territory in the world. The Palestinian Authority is charged 40 million shekels a month for its electricity supply and this money is deducted by Israel from the tax revenue it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. In May the Palestinian Authority said it would only pay 70 per cent of the monthly cost of the supply of electricity by the Israel Electric Corporation to the Gaza Strip. Israel refuses to make up the shortfall and so guess who pays?

Israel's behavior surprises nobody after constant human rights violations and heavy-handedness, even against children, bulldozing homes, stealing land, desecrating cemeteries and so on. The Palestinian Authority itself is using this crude attempt to gain back control of the Gaza Strip which it lost to HAMAS in 2007.

Photo

By btselem - http://www.btselem.org/photoblog/20140810_beit_hanun, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34776969