GAZA CITY, 20 August 2007 — The European Union stopped funding a major Gaza Strip power plant yesterday, cutting off electricity to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
The plant had already cut power to large swaths of Gaza last week after Israel closed a fuel crossing into Gaza. Israel reopened the passage yesterday, saying earlier security threats had diminished. But the plant’s Israeli fuel supplier said the European Union instructed it not to deliver new supplies because it would not guarantee payment.
“Fuel supplies will resume if and when the European Union or another credible source notifies us that it will guarantee payment for the power station’s fuel,” Israel’s Dor Alon fuel company said in a statement.
Alex de Mauny, a spokeswoman for the EU’s executive branch, confirmed the EU would not finance the fuel payment, but did not give a reason. The EU is reviewing “all the current arrangements, including financial arrangements, for funding this particular program,” de Mauny said.
Hamas fighters who control Gaza accused the Western-backed Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of the rival Fatah movement, of engineering the crisis for political gain.
The Gaza Generating Co., which powers 25 percent of the coastal strip, cut power to nearly half of Gaza’s 1.4 million people on Friday after Israel closed the Nahal Oz fuel crossing.
It shut off the last of its four generators yesterday after its fuel reserves were depleted, extending the power outage even further.
Private generators and sporadic supplies from Israeli and Egyptian companies that power the rest of the strip have eased the blackout.
Gazans initially were unfazed by the outages, because power reserves are always so thin that consumers are used to living without electricity for about five hours a day. But as the shortages dragged on for a third straight day, nerves were wearing thin.
The din of private generators outside every shop on Gaza City’s main commercial street filled the air as Naim Hamdan, a civil engineer, recounted how he sent home his staff of 25 to conserve fuel. Grocery store owner Fawaz Khalil said 3,000 shekels ($750) worth of cheese and milk spoiled because his generator was not powerful enough to keep his refrigerator cold.
“People have started coming to ask for candles and flashlights,” Khalil said. “I hope that selling candles and batteries and flashlights will help me make up for the loss of the cheese and milk.”
Hamas lawmaker Yehia Musa accused Abbas of a “dirty conspiracy” to convince international donors to cut off electricity to Gaza in an attempt to discredit Hamas. Abbas aides were not available to comment on the allegations.
Gaza Generating’s chief executive, Rafik Malikha, urged all relevant officials “to end this crisis situation in Gaza now.” Although Israeli and Egyptian power companies have stepped into the breach, affected neighborhoods and cities will be without electricity at least 12 hours a day, Malikha said.
Israeli Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the decision to resume deliveries was for Dor Alon to make. “This is a private company that probably received a security warning from the Defense Ministry. That is why, and rightfully so, the fuel shipments were halted. I assume fuel will start flowing again in a day or two,” Ben-Eliezer said.
