Gaza shuts main power station due to spiral of feuds

The main power station in the Gaza Strip stopped operating on Sunday due to deep feuds between the costal enclave rulers of Islamic Hamas movement and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, officials said.

The Hamas-run energy authority in Gaza said in an emailed press statement that the turbines of the main and sole power station in southern Gaza had totally stopped after the amounts of fuel, donated by Qatar, ran out.

The statement said that instead of having eight hours electricity connection, eight hours cutoff and eight hours connection perday, it will be six hours connection, 12 hours cutoff and six hours connection perday.

The crisis of electricity in the Gaza Strip has been going on since the start of the Palestinian internal split, which started in June 2007, when Hamas forcibly seized control of the enclave and routed Abbas security forces.

Closing down the sole power station in central Gaza Strip, south of Gaza city, came following earlier warnings made by Abbas that his Palestinian National Authority (PNA) would take unprecedented measures against Hamas rule in Gaza.

Earlier in April, the PNA consensus government cut 30 percent of its employees, including civil servants and security officers, a step that outraged 2 million populations in the enclave.

Officials closed to Abbas had earlier stated to the press that Abbas is determined to carry on with these tight measures to pressure on Hamas to leave ruling Gaza and hand it over back to the PNA.

They said that the PNA has been financing the internal split for ten years, where Hamas doesn't bear any responsibility and keep rejecting all the efforts to end the split and achieve full internal reconciliation. Endit