Chairman of the Palestinian Energy and Natural Resources Authority, Zafer Melhem, said that the Gaza Strip’s only power plant will cease operating at full capacity by next Tuesday.
The sole power plant, serving 2 million impoverished Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, runs on industrial fuel, which the occupying state of Israel is blocking from entering the coastal territory.
Melhem told Palestinian WAFA News Agency that the power plant will stop operating as a direct result of the Israeli authorities’ closure of Karm Abu Salem crossing, preventing the entry of industrial fuel since last Wednesday.
The crossing, located southeast of Rafah city, in the south, is the only commercial border crossing between Israel and Gaza.
Melhem stressed that this could have disastrous effects on an already desperate population, holding the Israeli authorities responsible for the additional suffering caused by the power shutdown.
Since 2007, Israel has maintained a strict air, land and sea blockade on the tiny coastal enclave, limiting the movement of goods and persons in and out of the Strip.
