Gaza Strip Power Plant Is Shut Down
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Gaza Strip's only electric power plant shut down yesterday evening after Israel halted the shipment of diesel that fuels it, plunging most of this city into darkness and threatening such vital services as hospitals, bakeries, water supply, and sewage.
Many of Gaza City's 400,000 inhabitants rushed to stock up on candles, batteries, and bread, trudging up and down stairs after elevators ground to a halt, and then shivered through a night of temperatures in the low 50s.
Israel sealed all crossings into the coastal strip last Thursday because of a spike in rocket attacks by Gaza-based Palestinian Arab fighters. The flow of industrial diesel fuel came to a stop, along with basic food supplies and other humanitarian aid not previously affected by Israel's suspension of most commerce with Gaza last year.
The power plant normally supplies electricity to 70% of Gaza City and about one-third of the Gaza Strip, which has a population of 1.5 million. The rest of the enclave's electricity comes directly from Egypt and Israel, but a technical problem has reduced the supply from Israel over the past week. Officials in Gaza said as many as half of Gaza's homes were hit by blackouts yesterday.
The U.N. Relief Works Agency, which distributes food to much of Gaza's population, joined human-rights organizations in condemning Israel for what they called collective punishment.
Arye Meckel, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, said those organizations should direct their criticism at Hamas, the Islamic movement that governs Gaza, and other militant groups that attack Israelis with cross-border rocket fire. "The ball is in their court," Mr. Meckel said. "If they stop the rockets today, everything would go back to normal."
Gazans rejected that position. "Do you really believe the rockets will stop because of this blackout?" Monzer abu Ramdan, a 56-year-old supermarket owner, said, as he worried about the survival of dairy products in his disabled refrigerated sections. "The Israelis are just punishing innocent civilians."
