Hospital emergency as heat combines with power cuts

GAZA’S SOLE power station resumed operations yesterday, following a delivery of fuel. The 200,000 litres of industrial diesel was enough to run one of the two generators for 36 hours.

Electricity company official Jamal al-Dardasawi said the plant would have to shut down again if further supplies of fuel were not purchased from Israel by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah.

Operations ceased on Saturday, leaving half a million Palestinians in Gaza City without electricity during an unremitting regional heat wave. Tens of thousands of Gazans have been camping on the beach as temperatures registered three to eight degrees higher than the summer average.

The shutdown compelled Gaza’s hospitals to declare a state of emergency. Director of emergency services Muawiya Hassanein predicted a humanitarian disaster and warned that patients on life-support machines and dialysis would be at risk if the blackout persisted.

Before the plant’s closure, residents were receiving 12-16 hours of electricity daily. Private generators make up the difference for those who can afford to pay.

Hamas, which rules Gaza, and the Fatah-dominated PA, which administers Palestinian enclaves in the West Bank, blame each other for the crisis.

The latest plant shutdown was the third since January.

Last November, the European Union ceased direct subventions for Gaza’s power and fuel and the PA was made responsible for these expenditures.

PA media spokesman Ghassan Khatib said Ramallah was not to blame for the shutdown, claiming Gaza administration transfers $1.3 million (€980,000) a month to Ramallah while the PA pays $9 million for Gaza’s consumption. About 25 per cent of power is provided by the Gaza City plant, while 70 per cent of the strip’s electricity is bought from Israel and 5 per cent from Egypt.

The Gaza company official retorted by saying the company had transferred $2 million to the PA ministry of finance to cover fuel for August. The company argues the shortfall is caused by the inability of Gazans to pay electricity bills because there is more than 50 per cent unemployment and 80 per cent of the strip’s population subsists on food rations provided by UN agencies.

Ramallah contends Gaza’s de facto Hamas government keeps money collected for electricity bills to run the administration.

However, during a recent visit to Gaza by a delegation of eminent West Bank Palestinians seeking to effect reconciliation between rival Hamas and Fatah, it was agreed the PA would pay for the Gaza plant’s fuel.