Power outage in Gaza threatens lives of thousandsGaza

The PA caretaker government in Gaza headed by Ismail Haneyya has warned of an imminent humanitarian disaster as a result of the power outage that affected large areas in the Gaza Strip.

Taher Al-Nunu, the government”s spokesman, said in a press release on Saturday night that Gaza had plunged into darkness and life came to a standstill after 80% of transport means came to a halt.

“Lives of thousands of people are in real danger”, he said and demanded an Arab, Islamic and international stand against such an unprecedented situation where an entire population is threatened with death.

Shifting to the issue of the Rafah crossing, which was opened by Egypt for three days before patients and humanitarian cases, Nunu said that it was a step in the right direction but not enough. He explained that the crossing was in fact still closed.

He said that the border terminal must be opened permanently 24 hours a day as was the case in the past.

For his part, the acting PLC speaker Dr. Ahmed Bahar said that the new Israeli crime of blocking fuel supplies to Gaza necessary to operate its sole power station is a new conspiracy to inflict slow death on the Gaza people especially after it declared Gaza a “hostile entity”.

Bahar told the Gaza-based Aqsa TV channel that Israel was killing the Gaza population in front of the entire silent world.

He appealed to the Arab and Islamic leaders to assume their historic and Islamic responsibility towards a besieged people, and asked what did those children and sick people do to deserve all this.

The acting PLC speaker wondered what were the world leaders and free peoples of the world waiting for “to intervene and save a population that is dying as a result of this oppressive siege”.