Gaza's only power plant shuts down, plunging 400,000 into darkness
Today Gaza's only electrical plant shut down, deprived of fuel by the Jewish blockade. Last week the Jews sealed all crossings into Gaza. For months, the victims inside have been living with fuel cutbacks, power outages, and shortages of supplies. The power plant's closure will force 400,000 people in Gaza City to live in darkness. Rain is predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday.
On 28 June 2006, Jewish air strikes destroyed the $150 million power plant. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency spent a year repairing it.
Shlomo Dror, a spokesman for Israel's defense ministry, said Gaza has enough fuel. He accused Palestinian officials of trying to create the impression of a crisis that did not exist. “The power plant shutdown will not be comfortable, but it's not a humanitarian crisis."
He had no definition of what constitutes a humanitarian crisis.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency – the organization in charge of Palestinian refugees -- warned that the Jewish blockade would create a crisis for hospitals, sewage treatment plants, and water facilities. "The logic of this defies basic humanitarian standards," said Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the Agency.
"We are going to shut down completely," said Rafik Maliha, director of the power plant. The regular fuel shipment from hasn't arrived Sunday because the fuel terminal, Nahal Oz, was closed, and the plant has nearly no stored reserves.”
The Jews have illegally withheld tax revenues from the Palestinians for two years. Gaza gets half its electricity from the power plant, and half from outside the prison wall.
Israel, with Egypt's cooperation, has blockaded Gaza since June, when Hamas expelled the corrupt Fatah gangsters.
Even after imposing the blockade, Israel allowed basic food items and humanitarian supplies into Gaza until Thursday, when Ehud Barak ordered all crossings closed.
Barak repeated that Israel is preparing for a large-scale invasion of Gaza. Already the Jews hit Gaza with air strikes every night and day, and have murdered nearly 40 people this week alone.
MSNBC
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From the United Nations web site:
"It's a nightmare for my children", says Mohammed, a 55 year-old Palestine refugee from the Beersheba area in the Negev Desert. His children often wake up during the night and scream because of the darkness.
"There aren’t enough candles in Gaza. You can go all over Gaza, and you won't find candles". Even if candles are available, he says they are in limited supply and are too expensive, selling for triple the usual price of NIS 1 ($0.25). "The borders are closed and you have to live in darkness.”
Mohammad, who lives with his family of ten in Jabalia Camp, builds an indoor fire in an empty room. The fire, made with cartons and tree branches, is used to cook lentils and the spinach-like greens (khubbezeh) that his children gather from fields.
It makes the house smell, bit it’s the only alternative for cooking that is available to Mohammad's family. "There is no electricity", the father of five begins. "The gas is expensive and all other energy sources are expensive. There is no money.”
But he considers his family lucky to live on the main road, where part of his house receives light from the streetlights. He wants to buy a gas lamp, but says they are too expensive—a small container of gas to fill them costs roughly 21 NIS ($5). Many Gazans are using their kerosene lamps from the 1950s, or gasoline lamps.
May all zionists and their supporters burn in hell.
