Israeli Occupation widens the crisis in Gaza Gaza – Mohammed Habib Citizens in Gaza are suffering the long duration power cuts and the instability of the electricity in the small periods of time the power is back. This led to complaints and discontent where the power cuts come in a period of exams held for school and college students. This causes several problems to the students, in addition to the damage occurring to the electronics due to the power cuts.
Citizens said that the officials of the electricity company and the energy authority are messing with their interests and feelings, and doubted the stories told by these officials.
Ahmad Abu al- Omrain, Director of the Information Centre in the Energy and Natural Resources Authority in Gaza, said that the Israeli occupation intentionally increases the electricity crisis by refusing to fix the Israeli lines extending power to Gaza.
Abu al-Omrain said in a press statement that the current deficit in the amount of electricity reached 40 per cent, which isn’t enough for the needs of the people in Gaza. This is in addition to the interrupted pump in the Qatari fuel which affects the operation of the power station.
He explained that the power deficit increased due to the irregular entry of the Qatari fuel to Gaza through Egypt, which affected the power station.
Ahmad Abu al- Omrain added that the electricity crisis increased also because of the cut of two main lines of electricity by the Israeli occupation, one is the Bahr line which distributes in many areas in Gaza and in the north, the Khan Younus line.
He said that the occupation provides Gaza with ten lines with the total of 120 watt, where losing two main lines means losing about 24 mega watt of the electricity arriving to Gaza.
Abu al- Omrain pointed out that the energy authority is making great efforts to pressure the occupation to let the Israeli companies reach the contact areas to fix the main lines. These efforts included contacting international bodies, stressing that the delay increases the crisis.
He hoped that the external bodies would also try to pressure the international bodies to provide enough fuel to run the power station, and that the Qatari fuel would be regularly entered.
Jamal al-Derdesawi, Director of Public Relations and Media in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza, warned about the danger of the delay in fixing the two lines.
He explained that one of them feeds a big area of north Gaza including Bait Lahya, Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, al-Atatra and al-Karama neighbourhood, where the interruption of this line has been consistent for more than two weeks.
He addressed the citizens calling for rationalization of the use of electricity to avoid the suddeninterruption of the power, especially since electricity consumption increased after Eid al-Adha holidays, as the governmental, private institutions and facilities returned to work.