Lack of fuel leads to Gaza blackouts

FUEL CRISIS: Half a million Palestinians were left without electricity following the forced closure of the Gaza Strip’s sole power plant. (AFP)

The Gaza Strip's sole power plant shut down on Saturday for lack of fuel, according to a senior Palestinian official, leading to blackouts across the Islamist Hamas-ruled territory.

"The power plant has been shut down because of lack of fuel. This means that half a million Palestinians do not have electricity because the plant produces 30% of the power in Gaza," the official said on condition of anonymity.

A spokesman for the Israeli army's coordination office for the occupied territories, which supervises the supply of fuel and vital aid to the territory, said the plant was last supplied with fuel on Wednesday.

"They are scheduled to be supplied tomorrow," Major Peter Lerner told newswire AFP, adding that the amount depended on whether militants launched another attack on Gaza's main Nahal Oz fuel terminal.

"If they attack the crossings, as they have again this weekend, then obviously that limits how much fuel we can bring in," Lerner said, referring to recent rocket and mortar attacks launched from the isolated territory.

Israel closed the fuel terminal after a deadly April 9 attack by Palestinian militants that killed two civilian Israeli employees, and has opened it only sporadically since then.

However, it has continued to supply industrial-grade fuel for the power plant, which provides most of the electricity for Gaza City. Israel provides the majority of Gaza's electricity directly.

Israel has sealed off the impoverished coastal strip from all but vital humanitarian aid since Hamas seized power nearly 11 months ago, in an attempt to pressure the Islamist-run government to halt rocket and mortar attacks.

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