PA responsible for Gaza electricity crisis

The Head of the Government Committee for breaking the siege on Gaza, Hamdi Shaath, blamed the Palestinian Authority (PA) for the electricity crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Shaath said that the electricity crisis in the Strip was caused by the PA’s insistence on getting a high rate of VAT on fuel bought for the only electricity plant.

In a press conference, Shaath told journalists that the Electricity Company in Gaza pays NIS 4.2 ($1.18) per litre of industrial fuel for the plant. “The PA insists on adding NIS 1.5 to each litre,” he said. “This should not be applicable to blockaded Gaza where residents suffer high unemployment rates.”

He added, “Instead of decreasing the effects of the siege, the PA is planning to get half a million dollars every day from this tax.”

Meanwhile, Shaath called for an international campaign to break the siege, which has been imposed on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli occupation since 2006, to be launched.

The siege was tightened after the strict Egyptian monitoring of Palestinian-Egyptian borders, which Gaza residents used to smuggle large amounts of their daily needs through.