Blackouts as Gaza power plant shuts down due to Israeli fuel Cuts, Egypt refuses to let Iran and Algeria supply Gaza with fuel

Blackouts as Gaza power plant shuts down due to Israeli fuel cuts

Date: 11 / 05 / 2008 Time: 09:23
Gaza – Ma'an –

The Gaza Strip's sole power plant shut down due to a lack of fuel on Saturday, Kana'an 'Ubaid, the deputy chair of the Palestinian power and natural resources service said.

'Ubaid said during a press conference in Gaza City that 30-35% of homes in the Strip, and fully half of homes in Gaza City are now without electricity.

The Israeli occupation government, which controls Gaza's borders, has limited fuel supplies since last September, culminating in an almost complete shutdown of the Nahal Oz fuel terminal.

The diesel-burning power plant supplies electricity to 800,000 of Gaza's 1.5 million residents. Additional electricity flows into Gaza from Israel and Egypt. The European Union pays for the fuel for the power plant.

Algeria recently offered to supply fuel to Gaza if Egypt would allow tanker trucks to pass through the Rafah border crossing, bypassing the Israeli-controlled crossings, 'Ubaid said. Egyptian authorities have yet to respond to the proposal. Iran also offered fuel to Gaza two years ago.

"Egypt sent gas to Israel, and they should have sent it to the Gaza Strip instead," he said. He thanked Algeria for its offer, and called on Egypt to allow Algerian fuel through the crossing.

The power plant consumes 450,000 liters of industrial fuel a day. The Strip also ordinarily consumes 150,000 liters of gasoline, 350 thousand liters of diesel and 300 tons of cooking gas every day.

'Ubaid also accused Israel of shipping fuel to the Gaza Strip at the last minute. He also said that the shutdown of the power plant would only worsen an already building crisis in Gaza.

Energy authority: Israel blocks shipments of industrial diesel to Gaza's power plant

Sunday May 11, 2008 13:21 by Rami Almeghari - IMEMC & Agencies

The Palestinian energy authority said on Sunday that the Israeli occupation government blocked on Sunday morning delivery of industrial crude diesel to Gaza's power plant, which generates electricity for Gaza's population.

Abdul Karim Abdeen, director of the energy authority, told media outlets in Gaza today that despite contacts with the Israelis for the resumption of shipments of industrial diesel to the power plant, the Israelis refused to allow them in under security pretexts, mainly at the Nahal Auz fuel terminal in eastern Gaza.

The energy authority had earlier declared that the Gaza power plant would have to shut down completely very soon due to lack of fuel, needed to generate electricity. This would mean a total deficit of power supply, estimated at %55 percent of the original need of Gaza's 1.5 million residents.

Kana'an 'Ubaid, deputy-head of the energy authority, held a press conference yesterday in Ramattan News Agency in Gaza, said that stoppage of the Gaza's sole power plant would mean a total paralysis of life in the Strip, especially in the shadow of large deficits of cooking gas and other types of fuel..

'Ubaid called on all concerned international and Arab bodies to intervene immediately to prevent a real humanitarian crisis in the coastal region.

Nounu: Power outage in Gaza threatens lives of thousands

[ 11/05/2008 - 09:28 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The PA caretaker government in Gaza headed by Ismail Haniya has warned of an imminent humanitarian disaster as a result of the power outage that affected large areas in the Gaza Strip.

Taher Al-Nounu, the government's spokesman, said in a press release on Saturday night that Gaza had plunged into darkness and life came to a standstill after 80% of transport means came to a halt.

"Lives of thousands of people are in real danger", he said and demanded an Arab, Islamic and international stand against such an unprecedented situation where an entire population is threatened with death.

Shifting to the issue of the Rafah crossing, which was opened by Egypt for three days before patients and humanitarian cases, Nunu said that it was a step in the right direction but not enough. He explained that the crossing was in fact still closed.

He said that the border terminal must be opened permanently 24 hours a day as was the case in the past.

For his part, the acting PLC speaker Dr. Ahmed Bahar said that the new Israeli crime of blocking fuel supplies to Gaza necessary to operate its sole power station is a new conspiracy to inflict slow death on the Gaza people especially after it declared Gaza a "hostile entity".

Bahar told the Gaza-based Aqsa TV channel that Israel was killing the Gaza population in front of the entire silent world.

He appealed to the Arab and Islamic leaders to assume their historic and Islamic responsibility towards a besieged people, and asked what did those children and sick people do to deserve all this.

The acting PLC speaker wondered what were the world leaders and free peoples of the world waiting for "to intervene and save a population that is dying as a result of this oppressive siege".

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