The Gaza Strip’s only power plant closed Saturday due to a lack of fuel.
Gaza’s only power plant shut down on Saturday after running out of fuel, a spokesman for the power company said, five days after Israel closed its goods crossing with the Palestinian enclave.
“The power plant in Gaza has stopped [operating] due to fuel shortages,” said Mohammed Thabet, a spokesman for the power company.
The power plant has run out of fuel deliveries through Israel since the country closed its goods and people crossings with Gaza on Tuesday.
Electricity supplies are expected to plummet to just four hours a day, Thabet said.
Diesel for the power plant is usually trucked in from Egypt or Israel, which has maintained a blockade of the enclave since the militant group Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.
Israel’s closure of its crossings with Gaza came as the army prepared for retaliation following the arrest of two senior members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the occupied West Bank.
The group did not retaliate until Israel launched pre-emptive airstrikes against the enclave on Friday, prompting militants to fire rockets into Israel.
In a statement, Saturday, Gaza’s power company said the shutdown “will affect all utilities and crucial facilities and exacerbate the humanitarian situation.”
Diesel for the power plant is usually trucked in from Egypt or Israel, which has maintained a blockade of the enclave since the militant group Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.
Israel’s closure of its crossings with Gaza came as the army prepared for retaliation following the arrest of two senior members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the occupied West Bank.
The group did not retaliate until Israel launched pre-emptive airstrikes against the enclave on Friday, prompting militants to fire rockets into Israel.
In a statement, Saturday, Gaza’s power company said the closure “will affect all utilities and crucial facilities and exacerbate the humanitarian situation.”
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