{"id":33965,"date":"2017-04-17T10:12:09","date_gmt":"2017-04-17T10:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/gaza-s-only-power-plant-runs-out-of-fuel\/"},"modified":"2017-04-17T10:11:51","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T10:11:51","slug":"gaza-s-only-power-plant-runs-out-of-fuel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/gaza-s-only-power-plant-runs-out-of-fuel\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaza’s only power plant runs out of fuel"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Two million Palestinians in the besieged territory now down to a few hours of electricity a day as tensions rise.}<\/p>\n

The Gaza Strip’s only functioning power plant has shut down after running out of fuel, leaving two million people in the Hamas-governed Palestinian territory with only six hours of electricity a day.<\/p>\n

Samir Metir, head of Gaza’s electricity provider, told AFP news agency that all the plant’s fuel, purchased with funding from Qatar and Turkey, had been used up.<\/p>\n

He said it was not clear when the territory would receive another shipment, owing to a “dispute” between the electricity authority in Gaza and Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007 from Fatah, the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.<\/p>\n

A mooted power-sharing agreement between the two factions in Gaza has failed to materialise, and residents have been subjected to a decade-long Israeli blockade, strangling the local economy and severely limiting supplies.<\/p>\n

Metir said the power plant cannot afford to pay the enormous fuel taxes imposed by the PA.<\/p>\n

“Today we had about six hours of electricity at my house. Now it’s off for the next 12 hours,” Ezz Zanoun, a photographer in Gaza City, told Al Jazeera on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“Tomorrow it might be worse. We’re expecting about four hours [of electricity] – and from there the real problems start.”<\/p>\n

Protests broke out in January over the power shortages, which the Gaza health ministry said could have “dangerous consequences” for patients in hospitals.<\/p>\n

The crisis was resolved by tax-free donations from Qatar and Turkey, which ran out last week. But now the PA is no longer willing to waive the fuel for Gaza.<\/p>\n

Fuel supply for Gaza’s two million inhabitants has been a long-running source of dispute, with most homes in the territory receiving two eight-hour periods of electricity a day even when the power plant is operating normally.<\/p>\n

As things stand, residents can expect two six-hour periods of electricity, Metir said, “including electricity bought from Israel and Egypt”.<\/p>\n

Zanoun told Al Jazeera that due to shifting schedules, households are often relegated to only one six-hour period a day.<\/p>\n

At least 65 percent of residents in Gaza live in poverty, 72 percent are food-insecure, and 80 percent have grown dependent on international aid, according to a recent report published by the EU-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.<\/p>\n

Unemployment in the territory hit an unprecedented 43 percent in the last quarter of 2016.<\/p>\n

A Fatah-led delegation is expected to travel to Gaza later this month to discuss reunification efforts with Hamas.<\/p>\n

\"At<\/figure>\n

Source:Al Jazeera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Two million Palestinians in the besieged territory now down to a few hours of electricity a day as tensions rise.} The Gaza Strip’s only functioning power plant has shut down after running out of fuel, leaving two million people in the Hamas-governed Palestinian territory with only six hours of electricity a day. Samir Metir, head […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-33965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33965\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33965"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=33965"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=33965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}