Gaza 'days away' from blackout as fuel runs out
Gaza 'days away' from blackout as fuel runs out
The Gaza Strip's sole power plant is running out of fuel and will stop operation within days, a Palestinian spokesman warned on Monday.
2 min read
Households are already only receiving four hours of power a day [Getty]
Gaza's only power plant will cease operation within days as the besiged strip runs out of fuel, a Palestinian official said on Monday, warning that hospitals and homes will plunge into darkness amid relentless Israeli bombardment.
"Israel is preventing the entry of fuel to the power plant in Gaza," Mohammad Thabet from the Electricity Distribution Company of Gaza, told a press conference in Gaza City.
The spokesman urged international community to pressure on Israel to reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing, Gaza's only functional commercial crossing, to allow the entry of fuel into the Palestinian enclave.
"The available fuel is sufficient to operate the power plant for only two or three days," Thabet said.
The official added that the company's losses due to the ongoing Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip stands at around $8 million.
Households across much of the tiny blockaded strip are already only receiving four hours of power a day since the closure of the crossing.
The fighting has also damaged power lines to Israel, which according to Israeli media has cut more than 230,000 Gazans off from electricity.
At least 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes since last Monday, including 59 children and 35 women, and more than 1,305 injured.
In the occupied West Bank, 21 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and 4,363 have been wounded, after demonstrations broke out in response to the bombing of besieged Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
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