POWER CUT TO ABOUT 50% OF GAZANS AS FUEL RUNS OUT

Palestine Foundation Pakistan (PFP)
(Copied from PFP's message on Facebook)

One of the two generators of Gaza’s only power plant has been shut down due to a shortage of fuel, cutting power to around 50 percent of the residents of the Gaza Strip.

The Gaza Energy Authority announced on Saturday that the remaining amount of fuel is enough to operate the other generator until Sunday morning.

The capacity of Gaza’s only power plant has been curtailed to 30 megawatts, and power may have to be cut to another 10 percent of the residents of the Gaza Strip if bad weather continues since it causes electrical malfunctioning, the energy authority added.

The fuel for the plant is purchased from and delivered by Israel, via trucks through the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza.

The Gaza Energy Authority has called on international parties, Arab states, and members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to end Gaza’s power crisis by holding the Ramallah-based Ministry of Finance responsible for decreasing the fuel allowance into Gaza, which it said mirrored Israel’s blockade policy on the Strip.

A European Union contract paying for fuel shipments expired on November 30, 2009, Kan’an Obeid, the deputy manager of the Gaza Energy Authority, said on Thursday.

While the EU had been providing the service after the contract expired, EU officials recently notified the Gaza Energy Authority that they would no longer pay for the fuel shipments unless the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah drafted a new agreement and payment scheme