Gaza’s ruling Hamas terrorist organization is warning that a cut in power to the enclave will be “catastrophic.”
Israel’s Security Cabinet reluctantly decided on Sunday to cut the power supply to Gaza by 40 percent, prompting the warning from Hamas.
“The decision by the Israeli Occupation to reduce electricity to the Gaza Strip at the behest of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is catastrophic and dangerous,” Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif al-Qanou said in a statement. “It will hasten the deterioration of the situation and its explosion in the Strip.”
After having tried without success for several months to raise money in the international community to cover Gaza’s electric bill, IDF Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai finally gave up.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority government told Israel last month that it would only agree to pay NIS 25 million against its long-standing electricity bill – an account that costs NIS 40 million for 125 megawatts. The reduction comes as part of a move by Abbas to pressure Hamas into releasing its control over Gaza, which the terror group seized in a bloody coup in 2007.
Up to this point, residents of Gaza have received four hours of electricity each day since April. With the power cut, that amount will be reduced by about 45 minutes per day, assuming Hamas does not divert any of the remaining electricity for non-civilian use, such as military infrastructure work (ie: construction of more terror tunnels.)
Humanitarian agencies and the United Nations have expressed deep concerns over the health and other impacts of the lack of electricity in Gaza – as have government and other agencies in Israel. However, no one seems willing or able to do anything about paying the for the cost of the electricity. Egypt long since refused to supply energy for free, and its three power lines into Gaza are rarely active.
The Hamas government, which seems to have no problem obtaining expensive advanced weaponry, can’t seem to find a way to pay its region’s electric bill even when it means endangering the lives of its own citizens.