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Blockade Leaves Gaza In The Dark

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By RUSHDI ABU ALOUF and RICHARD BOUDREAUX, Los Angeles Times

Published: January 21, 2008

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The Gaza Strip's only electric power plant shut down Sunday 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 Thursday because of a spike in rocket attacks by Gaza-based Palestinian militants. 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.

"There is no fuel coming in and we have no reserves," Kanan Obeid, deputy chairman of the Gaza Energy Authority, said in announcing the shutdown.

The power plant normally supplies electricity to 70 percent 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 Sunday.

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.

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