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A Palestinian man repairing generators at his shop in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 19, 2017. IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA/REUTERS. Published by Haaretz

Gaza's power plant (AFP/File). Published by Maan News
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by Jack Khoury and Reuters, published by Haaretz
Jun 20, 2017 3:51 AM

Israel decreased the amount of electricity it supplies to the Gaza Strip on Monday, meaning residents of the coastal enclave will now receive three and a quarter hours of electricity per day.

Gaza’s electricity company said the Israel Electric Corporation supplied eight megawatts below the 120 megawatt amount it has been supplying recently, meaning Gazans will now receive 45 minutes less electricity than the average four hours they were receiving.

The move follows a decision by the Palestinian Authority to reduce its payments to Israel for Gaza residents’ electricity usage by 30 percent.

While Hamas has publicly warned the move is likely to cause “an explosion” in Gaza, Hamas sources have told Haaretz the group will not rush to seek a confrontation with Israel.

Talks to find a solution to the electricity crisis continue, including with several European and Gulf countries that have offered to pay the electricity costs.

In addition to reducing its payments toward the Gaza Strip’s power bill, the PA has also stopped transferring funds to Gaza’s health system. According to the nonproft Physicians for Human Rights, some 240 children and hundreds of cancer and cystic fibrosis patients are not receiving treatments as a result of the cuts.

Israeli nongovernmental organization Gisha, which campaigns for Palestinians’ freedom of movement, wrote to Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman two weeks ago, stressing that the electricity shortage in the Gaza Strip had already resulted in the shuttering of desalination plants that are vital to meeting the Strip’s drinking-water needs, the closure of hospital departments, and that sewage was flowing in the streets.

“In light of the harsh reality,” the letter stated, “professional bodies are already warning of a humanitarian disaster” in Gaza.

A spokesman for Gaza's electric authority told journalists in the Strip following the Israel Electric Corporation's announcement that the two supply lines reduced by Israel serve Gaza City and the area of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, meaning these two zones are due to feel the full effects immediately.

"Eight megawatts sounds like little but this is electric power that could run hospitals in Gaza City, so we're talking aobut a very dangerous reduction and if it worsens it will lead to disaster in all respects," he said.

A Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Fawzi Barhoum, warned against what he called the destructive consequences of the decision and said that the PA, particularly President Mahmoud Abbas, and Israel are responsible for the crisis. "This behavior will only hasten the next explosion," he said.

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Gaza faced with 2 to 3 hours of power a day after Israel begins electricity cuts

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- JUNE 19, 2017 1:12 P.M. (UPDATED: JUNE 20, 2017 10:45 A.M.)

Israel started to reduce electricity supplies to the besieged Gaza Strip on Monday, despite being urged by humanitarian organizations not to implement the decision, which came at the request of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Gaza's electricity company, the Gaza Electricity Distribution Corporation, said in a statement Monday that the Israeli grids supplying the Gaza Strip reduced their output from 120 to 112 megawatts.

The statement explained that the reduction affected two grids -- one known as the Baghdad Line that feeds the Gaza City district and Grid 11 that feeds Khan Yunis in southern Gaza -- which had previously produced a combined 24 megawatts of power, and were now producing just 16 megawatts.

Electricity company spokesman Muhammad Thabet said the reduction meant power would be provided for only two to three hours a day.

Israel announced the decision to cut supplies last week, after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the occupied West Bank-based PA would no longer pay the full amount of the monthly electricity bill, as both Israel and the PA have accused Hamas of collecting millions of shekels in taxes from Gazans every month without transferring the money to the PA.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement later on Monday that "the Israeli occupation is primarily responsible for the consequences of the electricity reduction, because Israel collects taxes from Palestinians at Gaza's crossings that are more than enough to cover Gaza's of electricity needs."   

Another Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, was also quoted in an official Hamas statement as saying that both Israel and Abbas were responsible for the "disastrous repercussions of these electricity reductions and of blocking fuel supplies to reach the Gaza Strip's power plant."

Gaza’s sole power plant shut down in April, as Gaza’s electricity officials said they could not afford a PA-imposed tax on diesel fuel that doubled the price of operating the plant.

As a result, Gazans went from eight hours of electricity a day down to three or four. 

Barhoum said the Israeli and PA measures would "accelerate the deterioration of the situation in the Gaza Strip, because they affect every aspect of daily life."

He urged Palestinian factions to resist the Israeli and PA actions and to prepare for further projects that aim to "liquidate the Palestinian cause."

Gaza, which marked its 10th year under Israeli blockade last week, has struggled for years with power shortages due to limited fuel access and degraded infrastructure. 

A group of 16 civil society organizations urged Israeli authorities on Wednesday to reconsider limiting electricity output to Gaza, slamming the decision as “unrelated to concrete security needs” and “political in nature,” therefore in violation of international law.

“Israel cannot claim to be only a service provider, responding neutrally to a client’s request. Given its extensive control over life in the Strip, Israel is responsible for enabling normal life for its residents, as an occupying force in the Strip,” the groups said.

The power reduction is expected to have immediately and disastrous effects on the medical sector in particular, which is also impacted by separate PA budget cuts, putting hundreds of patients’ lives at risk.

While UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territory Robert Piper characterized the ever-worsening crisis in Gaza as “an internal Palestinian dispute” on Wednesday, rights groups have placed the bulk of the blame on the Israeli siege.

Israeli NGO B’Tselem blamed the blockade for putting Gaza “in the throes of a humanitarian disaster,” adding that Israel was “consigning (Gaza’s) residents to living in abject poverty under practically inhuman conditions unparalleled in the modern world.”

“This is not some sort of natural disaster,” B’Tselem added. “Had that been the case, Israel would have likely sent in a humanitarian aid mission. Instead, the reality in Gaza is the result of Israel’s handiwork, achieved by its decade-long implementation of a brutal policy.”