Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political-security cabinet on Sunday decided to accede to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ request to reduce the supply of electricity to the Gaza Strip. A senior Israeli official told Ha’aretz that the ministers’ decision was based on the IDF’s recommendation to make life harder for Hamas, in accordance with Abbas’ decision to reduce the amount he pays Israel for electricity.
Back in April, Abbas told Israel that he was reducing by 40% the amount of money he was going to pay Israel for electricity for Gaza. Abbas made the decision as part of his attempt to exert heavy pressure on Hamas, which is currently challenging the PLO rule in the PA. Israel then announced in response that it would reduce the supply of electricity to the Gaza Strip in accordance with the size of the payment Abbas would transfer.
Reducing the supply of electricity is expected to exacerbate the already difficult humanitarian situation in Gaza.
The official told Ha’aretz that IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot, head of Military Intelligence Hartzay Halevy, and Coordinator of Activities in the Territories Yoav Mordechai described to the cabinet a worsening situation in Gaza, suggesting that further restrictions on the supply of electricity could speed up the escalation in the Gaza Strip to the point of erupting violent clashes. At the same time, the same senior IDF officials did not recommend easing the burden on Hamas, and Mordechai recommended that Israeli policy should not contradict Abbas’ position.
This adherence to the Chairman’s orders struck at least one cabinet member as droll: Minister Yuval Steinitz berated Mordechai, accusing him of complying with Abbas’s instructions. Mordechai replied angrily ironically that, in fact, he regularly salutes the chairman, and accused Steinitz of responsibility for recent leaks against him.
“At the meeting, we saw the Catch 22 in which we are trapped in Gaza,” the senior official told Ha’aretz. “On the one hand, we want to work with Abbas and not to ease up on Hamas, and on the other hand, in the end, everything will collapse on us [in Gaza].”
According to Gisha, Gaza’s only power plant has been out of commission for more than two weeks, because of a dispute between the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas government over the rate of excise taxes on fuel for the plant. Without the electricity from the local power plant, the Israeli electricity accounts for about 80% of the total supply to Gaza. When Israel cuts off that supply by 40%, Gaza’s residents would be left with the 28 MW purchased from Egypt, covering 13% of its regular supply.
Incidentally, “regular supply” as such is an amount that meets only about half of Gaza’s actual demand. Currently, even when all power sources are delivering at optimal capacity, Gaza residents have access to electricity in cycles of eight hours of supply, which are followed by eight hours of outages, receiving a daily average of about 12 hours’ supply.