Just in:
Dubai Holding’s Consolidation Move Raises Questions About Property Market Stability // Maldives Tourism Triumphs: Visitor Numbers Surpass 100,000 for Third Consecutive Month This Year // China Steers Toward Electric Vehicle Leadership // Indian Customer Experience Platform Locobuzz Targets Flourishing Middle East Market // 2024 China Corporate Payment Survey: Payment delays continued to shorten, but corporates increasingly cautious // Adapting to the Digital Evolution: Strategies for Online Trading in the UAE // Gold Loses Shine as Investors Eye Interest Rate Decisions // Emirati Spacefarers Chart New Territory in Scientific Research // Blue Cross Partners with AlipayHK on Easter Promotion Travel Smart 5-day Single-trip Cover for Only HK$1 // Beyond Bullets and Barrels: UAE imports finance 125,000 US jobs // Credit Rating Agency Maintains Positive Outlook for Kuwait // Whisky Hammer celebrates landmark 100th auction – its largest to date featuring over 5,000 lots // Cracking Down on Exploitation: UAE Outlines Penalties for Organized Begging // Fidelity Eyes Staking Rewards with Updated Ethereum ETF Proposal // China Tower (788.HK) Announces 2023 Annual Results // Deceptive Doc Trick: Phishing Campaign Targets US Businesses with Remote Access Trojan // HKSTP Unveils Top 74 Global Startups Confirmed for EPiC 2024 Grand Finale // Andertoons by Mark Anderson for Tue, 19 Mar 2024 // 100 days of UAE’s COP28 presidency: Bouquets and brickbats // Navigating AI landscape: Fostering digital agility and resilience //
HomeNewsboxChallenging Hamas, Palestinian Authority Cuts Electricity Payments for Gaza

Challenging Hamas, Palestinian Authority Cuts Electricity Payments for Gaza

28ISRAEL facebookJumbo

The Israeli agency that liaises with the Palestinians on civilian affairs, known as Cogat (an acronym for Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories), said Israel supplies Gaza with 30 percent of its total electricity needs at a monthly cost of about $11 million.

Israel did not immediately cut off the supply, apparently hoping that international donors would step in and pay. The United Nations said on Thursday that it had allocated $500,000 for the purchase of emergency fuel for hospitals.

ADVERTISEMENT

“This is a very regrettable decision on the part of the Palestinian Authority,” said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist at Al-Azhar University in Gaza. “We are already facing a catastrophic situation regarding electricity.”

Instead of cutting direct Palestinian Authority subsidies to Gaza, for health or education, Mr. Abusada said, Mr. Abbas chose to punish Hamas in a way that put the onus on Israel. If Israel does cut electricity to Gaza, Mr. Abusada said, “the Palestinians will be blaming Israel.”

Hamas, the Islamic militant group, won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, dealing Mr. Abbas and his mainstream Fatah party a humiliating blow. A year later, amid factional fighting, Hamas routed Fatah forces in Gaza and seized full control.

“If Abbas had resorted to such a decision in the first year,” Mr. Abusada said, “he may have avoided it going on for 10 years.”

Tensions between the rival parties have been rising recently. Hamas appointed an administrative committee for Gaza, a de facto local government, last month. Fatah then sent a stark message to Hamas: Reconcile and allow the Palestinian Authority to assume control in Gaza, or manage alone.

“Part of this is Abbas showing he is in control and he is the boss,” said Mahdi Abdul Hadi, director of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, an independent research institute in East Jerusalem. “The message to Hamas is: If you want to govern it, take it.”

In a first step, the authority cut by 30 percent the salaries it pays to tens of thousands of its employees in Gaza who do not work, but have remained on the payroll. Hamas, meanwhile, refuses to buy fuel from the authority for the Gaza power station because of a dispute over taxation. It shut down two weeks ago, after exhausting its fuel reserves.

At a news conference at the Shifa hospital in Gaza this week, Marwan Abu Rass, a Hamas parliamentarian, called Mr. Abbas a traitor and said he should be publicly hanged. Last week, protesters in the southern Gaza Strip burned pictures of Mr. Abbas and pasted his image onto the face of a donkey.

At the same time, Mr. Abbas is being challenged by a mass hunger strike of Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli prisons, now in its 11th day and led by one of his main rivals within Fatah. Businesses and schools throughout the Israeli-occupied West Bank were shuttered on Thursday in solidarity with the prisoners and scores of Palestinian youths clashed with Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Ramallah.

“Water and salt in the Israeli prisons, and stones and Molotov cocktails in the Palestinian streets until our prisoners are freed,” proclaimed one of the demonstrators, a 32-year-old mechanic from the nearby Jalazoun refugee camp.

Electricity shortages have also led to unrest in Gaza. Thousands protested in January when electricity was scarce during a cold winter. Now the electricity cuts are affecting the water supply in high-rise buildings because of the lack of power for pumps, and raw or poorly treated sewage is flowing into the sea.

“Hamas and Fatah are fighting with each other like kids and we are sitting in our homes with no electricity,” Fatima Hmeid, 39, a mother of nine, said on Thursday. “What is our crime?”

Continue reading the main story

NYtimes

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT
Just in:
HKSTP Unveils Top 74 Global Startups Confirmed for EPiC 2024 Grand Finale // 100 days of UAE’s COP28 presidency: Bouquets and brickbats // Blue Cross Partners with AlipayHK on Easter Promotion Travel Smart 5-day Single-trip Cover for Only HK$1 // Lingnan launches LingnanVerse 2.0 BETA to attract top students from all over the world // Maldives Tourism Triumphs: Visitor Numbers Surpass 100,000 for Third Consecutive Month This Year // Gold Loses Shine as Investors Eye Interest Rate Decisions // Fidelity Eyes Staking Rewards with Updated Ethereum ETF Proposal // Sharjah Government Announces Remote Work for Employees // China Steers Toward Electric Vehicle Leadership // Cogent Realty Advisors Launches Guide to Most Collaborative Office Space for AI and Tech Companies In Downtown NYC // Emirati Spacefarers Chart New Territory in Scientific Research // Whisky Hammer celebrates landmark 100th auction – its largest to date featuring over 5,000 lots // Dubai Holding’s Consolidation Move Raises Questions About Property Market Stability // Andertoons by Mark Anderson for Tue, 19 Mar 2024 // Deceptive Doc Trick: Phishing Campaign Targets US Businesses with Remote Access Trojan // National Push for Healthier Plates: Ministry Launches Campaign on Balanced Diets // Adapting to the Digital Evolution: Strategies for Online Trading in the UAE // Navigating AI landscape: Fostering digital agility and resilience // Tongcheng Travel Achieves Record High Results in 2023 Revenue Reaches RMB11.9 Billion Final Dividend of HK15 Cents Per Share // Indian Customer Experience Platform Locobuzz Targets Flourishing Middle East Market //