Gaza’s authorities say ‘all basic life services’ are at risk after Israel’s ‘total siege’ of the Hamas-run enclave.

Gaza’s power authority has said the blockaded enclave’s sole power plant will run out of fuel within hours, leaving the Palestinian territory without electricity after Israel cut off supplies in retaliation to the recent attacks by Hamas, the armed group that runs Gaza.

Palestinian Energy Authority Chairman Thafer Melhem told Voice of Palestine radio on Wednesday that the plant would shut down in the afternoon in Gaza, where about 2.3 million people live in one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

“This threatens to plunge the Strip into complete darkness and make it impossible to continue providing all basic life services, all of which depend on electricity, and it will not be possible to operate them partially with generators in light of the prevention of fuel supplies from Rafah Gate,” said a statement issued by Gaza’s authorities on Wednesday.

“This catastrophic situation creates a humanitarian crisis for all residents of the Gaza Strip,” it said.

The statement referred to Israel’s retaliation “as the dirtiest crime of collective punishment against defenceless civilians in modern history”.

It called on the international community to move quickly to stop “this crime against humanity and this multi-form mass murder”.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said “the fuel stock to operate the generators in the Gaza Strip hospitals will end tomorrow, Thursday, which will exacerbate the disastrous conditions in the hospitals”.

All of Gaza’s crossings are closed, making it impossible to bring in fuel for the power plant or the generators on which residents and hospitals have long relied.

  • @[email protected]
    1•2 years ago

    It will stop when they’re finished. I don’t think there’s many other likely courses from here.

    • Ganondorf
      2•2 years ago

      Israel won’t stop until Palestine is gone. That’s been the plan the whole time. Israel never wanted peace or a two-state solution, they just wanted the land at all costs - including hypocritically committing genocide by erasing a country and many of its inhabitants.

      • DarkGamer
        1•2 years ago

        Israel never wanted peace or a two-state solution, they just wanted the land at all costs

        Seems like you’re suggesting it’s Israel’s fault a diplomatic solution couldn’t be reached. Interesting that this is in Hamas’ charter then, the party that Gaza elected to office and is responsible for the recent murder of hundreds of civilians:

        article 13, “There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.”

        The realpolitik of the matter is that Palestine went to war and lost a long time ago but refuses to acknowledge it. They have no viable path to military victory, yet they refuse to concede and refuse to negotiate for a viable peace. Many, like Hamas, instead openly call for genocide and as we have seen their forces indiscriminately murder, rape and kidnap civilians.

        Either Palestine needs to come to the table willing to make some serious concessions, willing to enforce pacification of their more hostile elements, or there will not be a Palestine. Gaza will ebb away one destroyed building and one settlement at a time. They no longer can win on the battlefield or, thanks to Hamas, in the court of public opinion. They have no allies willing to help them. Their neighbors won’t even let refugees in due to what happened in Lebanon and Jordan.

        If there is truly concern for the civilians in Gaza their leadership needs to embrace a viable path to peace. A good start would be returning the kidnapped and bringing the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity to justice.