The chairman of the Northern Electric Company (NEC), a private company that supplies electricity to cities in the northern West Bank has, said that Israel has cut off electricity to Palestinians in Nablus and Jenin due to the accumulation of debt owed to the Israel Electric Corporation
During a telephone conversation with Anadolu’s reporter on Monday, NEC chairman Ghassan El-Shaka said that cables linking Palestinian and Israeli power lines have not received energy since Monday afternoon. This came hours after the Israel Electric Corporation announced its intention to reduce the amount of electricity reaching Palestinian cities.
The Israel Electric Corporation announced on Monday that it will start escalatory steps to reduce the amount of electricity reaching the Palestinian territories due to the large debt owed to them by Palestinian power companies and Palestinian government, a sum in excess of $1.8 billion shekels (around $470 million).
The head of the board of directors of the Palestinian Northern Electric Company, together with the mayor of Nablus, clarified that the Israeli company did not state the date of the expected return of the power supply to the two cities, pointing out that the punitive action is open until the repayment of the money owed by the Palestinians.
The company had threatened earlier this year, and last year, to reduce the amount of electricity supplied to the Palestinians, but this has not been done. It also threatened to cut off electricity for two hours to Palestinians living in East Jerusalem.
The Palestinian minister of national economy, Mohammad Mustafa, revealed on Monday that the bill of imported energy from Israel stands at $2.5 billion annually, which amounts to $7 million per day.