After Hamas police on Sunday made a “forced withdrawal” from the Islamic Bank in Gaza of cash [belonging to an Islamic charity] that had been frozen by a decision of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Monetary Authority, Ma’an News reported on Monday that “officials within the banking sector said making withdrawals at gunpoint was not a good sign for financial stability“.
Hamas officials claim that a Gaza court had ordered the release of the frozen funds.
Ma’an noted that it was “the second time this year that Hamas-affiliated police entered a bank and demanded [that] cash from charity accounts be handed over”…
This story can be viewed in full here.
This development came at the same time that Gaza’s Power Plant has virtually shut down in Gaza City (where 500,000 people, one-third of the population of the Gaza Strip, live). Gaza’s electrical technicians are apparently doing dangerous and difficult maneouvers to re-route the available electricity — coming now only from Israel with some from Egypt via Rafah — to serve all the population as best as possible. This means, in practical terms, that there are now power outages for 12-16 hours a day for everyone…
The problem is a shortfall in the special industrial diesel fuel needed to run Gaza’s Power Plant.
From November 2006 until the end of 2009, the European Union paid for this fuel, which must be ordered from Israel.
[In June 2006, in retaliation for the capture of IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit near the Kerem Shalom crossing, the Israeli Air Force bombed and badly damaged Gaza’s Power Plant. It was offline until November — repairs were difficult because of Israeli restrictions. Once it was back online, the EU funded the special industrial diesel fuel, until the PA decided to take over, in exchange for the salary support. This does not appear to have been a good deal for Gaza]
Over the past two years, the Gaza power plant shut down several times because Israel restricted deliveries as part of the military-administered sanctions that it imposes on Gaza, and kept the power plant running on a very short leash, then didn’t deliver on some days because of fighting and clashes between Israel and Palestinian groups in Gaza.
At the beginning of 2010, the Palestinian Authority said it would take over payments for the fuel, if the European Union would be responsible for paying the salaries and pensions of Palestinian Authority personnel.
Since then, the fuel deliveries have been cut down drastically — apparently because the Palestinian Authority is ordering less than the Gaza Power Plant needs to operate correctly.
This has now become a dispute over payments.
Gaza’s technicians say they have paid for the special industrial diesel fuel that must be imported from Israel to run the power plant, but the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah says that they are paying nearly 80 percent of the cost of the industrial diesel fuel — and won’t pay for a larger quantity until Gaza contributes more.
UPDATE + POSSIBLE CORRECTION [but who really knows?]: The Jerusalem Post, and Ma’an, report that the Palestinian Authority (or PA) says it has been paying 95 percent of Gaza’s electricity bill [since the PA started paying in January, instead of the EU.]
UPDATE TWO: Ma’an reported Monday night that the PA says it will pay only 75 percent, and that Gazans must pay 25 percent.
Earlier today, the Jerusalem Post reported that UNRWA’s Director of Operations in Gaza, John Ging, said that “It’s an unbearable situation here at the moment, and it needs to be solved very quickly. It’s a Palestinian problem, made by Palestinians, and causing Palestinian suffering. So let’s have a Palestinian solution”. This was reported here.