Palestine power company warns of humanitarian disaster in Gaza

Palestine power company warns of humanitarian disaster in Gaza

Executive director of Palestine electricity company Walid Sayel on Saturday warned of a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip after its only power station stopped operating as a result of the depletion of fuel supplies.

In a statement, Sayel appealed to all Arab, Palestinian and international parties to hasten to find a radical solution to the problem of power cuts in Gaza.

He said that the power crisis in Gaza is catastrophic and entails moves by all parties responsible to end it, where the outages black out two-thirds of the residents who need electricity as their need for water and air.

He stressed that the company are conducting intensive efforts and contacts with all parties concerned in order to overcome this obstacle and work on resuming the work in Gaza power station.

In the same context, the European campaign to end the siege called on the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah to assume its responsibility for the power crisis in Gaza, especially after the main power plant stopped working.

“We call on the PA to stop making unreal pretexts to evade its responsibilities and to channel the funds earmarked for the Gaza Strip, which the European Union provided for financing the power fuel in the Strip,” spokesman for the campaign Anwar Gharbi stressed.

“We in the European campaign confirm that we received clear messages from many foreign ministers of the EU states affirming that the funds are transferred to the PA which pledged to be committed to paying for heavy fuel used to operate the power plant,” Gharbi added.

He deplored the PA for using the humanitarian needs of one and a half million people in political wrangling, especially since this behavior could cost hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza their lives.