Palestinians fear return of power crisis in Gaza

Fears remerged yesterday of a new energy crisis in the Gaza Strip, as fuel supplies from Qatar and Turkey are due to end in mid-April.

The Gaza Energy and Human Resources Authority announced that it will not be able to buy fuel at the price determined by the – West Bank based – Palestinian Authority, due to financial conditions resulting from Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip.

“The fuel supply for the two fuel refineries will have been exhausted by Thursday. This includes the Qatari supply which was worth $12 million and lasted for over three months and the grant from Turkey, which has supplied 8,000 tonnes of fuel for power,” the Gaza Energy Authority said.

Read: Egyptian power line back to serving Gaza

The Energy and Human Resources Authority explained that it is not possible to buy fuel at the price set by the Palestinian Authority due to the high price resulting from additional taxes.

A member the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Talal Abu Zarifa, said that for the last ten years the electricity crisis has become a source of political disruption. In an interview with Quds Press, he called on the Palestinian leadership to implement projects that would end the electricity crisis permanently.

Gaza currently runs on an eight-hour cycle for electricity, in which power is supplied for eight hours before being cut for eight, however if the power plant stops working it could return to a six-hour cycle.