UN calls for 'urgent action' to address Gaza power crisis
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- "United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator James Rawley expressed concern on Friday at the closure of the Gaza Power Plant earlier in the day.Rawley said that the plant's shut down will "impact all essential services, including hospitals, clinics, sewage and water pumping stations.""It will also mean that Gaza's 1.7 million people will experience power outages of up to 16 hours per day," he added.Rawley noted that even before the shut down the Gaza Strip was "running on less than half of the electricity that it needs."Although the Gaza Strip is supplied electricity through connections to Egypt and Israel, the Gaza plant is responsible for providing around 30 percent of the energy needs of the Gaza Strip."For the benefit of Gaza's civilian population it is essential that a way be found to allow the power plant to resume its operations and that the broader chronic energy crisis be addressed," Rawley added.*On Friday, Gaza energy authorities announced that the plant had been shut down because they did not have "a single liter of fuel" with which to run it.*The energy authority's deputy chairman, Fathi el-Sheikh Khalil, said that Egypt's destruction of tunnels used to smuggle fuel to Gaza had created the crisis, and that the Palestinian Authority had imposed "prohibitive taxes," preventing Gaza from acquiring the necessary fuel."
UN calls for 'urgent action' to address Gaza power crisis | Maan News Agency
See what Israel is doing now, denying fuel to Gaza that will cause 1.7 million Gazans (some say 1.8 million now) to go without electricity for 16 hours a day.
Babies depending on incubators for life will die.
And hurting will spread across Gaza.