MIDDLE EAST: Gaza power plant officials warn of humanitarian crisis due to Israel's closure

Record ID: 739196

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: Gaza power plant officials warn of humanitarian crisis due to Israel's closure
  • Date: 21st January 2008
  • Summary: WIDE OF KANAAN ABEID, DEPUTY CHAIRMAN OF THE PALESTINIAN ENERGY AUTHORITY IN THE GAZA STRIP, SPEAKING TO REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) KANAAN ABEID, DEPUTY CHAIRMAN OF THE PALESTINIAN ENERGY AUTHORITY IN THE GAZA STRIP, SAYING: "Gaza will suffer because the turbine has stopped working completely due to the reduction in fuel supply because of technical problems on the Israeli (supply) lines. Gaza will also suffer because of disfunctioning electricity network, and this may lead to Gaza suffering from a humanitarian crisis, an ecological crisis and an environmental crisis to all citizens."
  • Embargoed: 5th February 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: War / Fighting,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABRR903BI25699P5Y2KB0FJKCC
  • Story Text: Gaza's main power plant began shutting down on Sunday (January 20) due to a fuel shortage caused by Israel's closure of the Hamas-controlled territory's borders in response to Palestinian rocket attacks.
    The impact could be seen in many of Gaza's buildings, where lights were out and elevators stopped working.
    Stores in the impoverished territory, home to 1.5 million people, were running out of candles and other goods because of a surge in demand and lack of supply. Gas stations have been shut because of Israeli cuts in petrol and diesel delivery.
    Kanaan Abeid, deputy chairman of the Palestinian Energy Authority in the Gaza Strip, said one of the plant's two turbines ceased operation in the morning and the second would do so in the evening.

    "Gaza will suffer because the turbine has stopped working completely due to the reduction in fuel supply because of technical problems on the Israeli (supply) lines. Gaza will also suffer because of disfunctioning electricity network, and this may lead to Gaza suffering from a humanitarian crisis, an ecological crisis and an environmental crisis to all citizens," Abeid said, estimating as many as one million Gaza residents would be affected by the full shutdown.

    "We had some stored reserves but unfortunately most of it was used and now we depend only on the daily supply of fuel that we get," added Dr. Rafique Maliha, an electricity engineer working at Gaza's power plant.
    Palestinian militants have been firing rockets daily into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, which Hamas Islamists seized by force in June after routing President Mahmoud Abbas' secular Fatah faction.
    Israel has responded to the rocket salvoes with a stepped up campaign of air strikes and ground incursions that have killed 39 Gazans, 18 of them Hamas militants, in the last week.
    On Friday (January 18), Israel's Defence Ministry tightened its closure of the territory, closing all border crossings to even U.N. humanitarian supplies. Officials said only "humanitarian cases" which received Defence Minister Ehud Barak's personal approval would be allowed through.
    Earlier on Sunday (January 20), children of Gaza City protested against the Israeli closure. Dozens of children marched through the streets of Gaza City with slogans written on their bared chests, calling on the international community to save their lives.
    The young demonstrators hanged leaflets on an exterior wall of UNSCO (United Nations Special Coordinator Office), where they staged the protest, and burnt Israeli and U.S. flags.
    In a different part of the city, residents flocked bakeries and grocery shops to prepare for a possible shortage of food.
    Other residents of Gaza suffer not only from the fuel shortage but also from the closure itself.

    "The sea, the land, and the sky are closed. Everywhere is closed.
    There is no fuel so we can not work now. The fishermen are sitting. They do not have money to buy anything. There is lack of fishing," fisherman Abu Aziz told Reuters on Gaza shore.
    Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said Israel has reduced the flow of petrol used in cars, as well as diesel, but not fuel oil and cooking gas.

    "Israel is applying pressure on the terrorist organisations in Gaza in order to put an end to the daily barrage of rockets against israeli citizens. We will continue to apply such pressure and use military tactics in order to convince the people that control Gaza that they have to put an end to this, that they have to stop attacking our citizens in southern Israel. We believe that no government would have act differently, any government has the ultimate to responsibility to protect its citizens," said Mekel.
    But officials with the European Union, which funds fuel shipments to the Gaza power plant, confirmed that one of the turbines had been shut down and that the plant was now operating at approximately half of its capacity.
    An EU official said the last EU-funded fuel shipment was made on Thursday (January 17) and that no fuel was allowed in on Sunday.
    According to Israeli and Palestinian officials, Gaza's population ordinarily consumes 200 megawatts of electricity, of which 65 are produced by the local power plant. The rest comes from Israel and Egypt.
    Critics say the fuel reductions amount to illegal "collective punishment" against largely aid-dependent Gaza.
    The Hamas-appointed Health Minister, Basim Naeem, warned that the territory's already crumbling health system was in danger of collapsing and that patients' lives were increasingly at risk due to the fuel shortage.
    Ends.
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