1st truckloads of Qatari funded fuel enter Gaza amid power crisis
July 28, 2015 3:15 P.M. (Updated: July 28, 2015 3:21 P.M.)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766691

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- The first truckloads of Qatari-funded fuel left from
the Suez Canal in Egypt to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, a Gaza-based official
said.

An estimated one million liters of Qatari-funded fuel, shipped through the
Kerem Shalom crossing, will be used to run the Gaza power station for 45
days using 45 megawatts daily, a member of the Gaza-based committee of
independent Palestinian figures Samir Mousa said.

The move comes amid a power crisis in the Gaza Strip that has left small
workshops and factories working far below their normal capacity.

Last week, the enclave's only power station reduced its provision of
electricity to eight hours per day as it was unable to pay taxes imposed by
the Palestinian Authority.

The current lack of electricity creates huge losses for the local businesses
as factories and workshops are producing only 20 percent of their capacity,
the speaker of the general federation of Gaza trade unions Samir al-Amsi
said Monday.

If the electricity crisis continues, al-Amsi warned, 90 percent of Gaza's
factories, blacksmith workshops, aluminum workshops, and automobile repair
workshops could shut down.

The Gaza Strip, which receives its electricity from Israel, Egypt, and its
one power plant, has been struggling to produce enough power for months.

Earlier this month, the Gaza Strip was reduced to eight hours of electricity
per day after its sole power plant shut down because it was unable to afford
PA-imposed taxes.

In 2012, Egypt stopped pumping Qatari-funded fuel to the Gaza Strip after 16
Egyptian soldiers were killed in an attack in the bordering Sinai Peninsula.

However, the Egyptian authorities now promise to keep shipping the fuel to
Gaza in an agreement reached between Palestinian independent officials, the
Egyptian government and the Arab League to solve the power crisis in the
Gaza Strip.