Egypt has begun trucking in deliveries of one million liters of desperately-needed diesel fuel to Gaza’s sole power plant. The supplies are coming in through the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza.
Two days ago the State of Israel reduced the amount of electricity supplied by the Israel Electricity Corporation, in accordance with a demand from Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas.
The PA leader refused to pay more than 70 percent of the previous bill, saying Hamas does not send him the payments for the electricity that Gaza residents remit to their government in the enclave.
Beginning this week, Gazans – who have already had to live with only four hours of electricity a day for several months – lost another 45 minutes of power as a result of the dispute.
Egypt is stepping in to save the day after having negotiated a deal with Hamas last week, to trade electricity in exchange for 17 wanted terrorist fugitives on an extradition list.