Much more than power at stake in Israel-Hamas electricity standoff
With Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announcing that he will stop financing Gaza's electricity needs, Israel must decide whether to save Gaza's residents and the Hamas regime with them.
It seems real this time. Barring a last-minute turnaround, the Gaza Strip will find itself in the worst humanitarian crisis it has known since the 2007 revolution that brought Hamas to power, with disastrous repercussions for its 2 million residents and for Israel.
On April 27, the Palestinian Authority (PA) informed Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories that it was immediately cutting off funding for Gaza's power supply. Not only will it no longer buy diesel fuel to operate the Gaza Strip’s one and only power station — the PA stopped doing so several weeks ago — it will stop footing the monthly bill for the power supplied by the Israel Electric Corporation to Gaza.
Data published by the Israeli human rights group Gisha indicate that Israel currently uses 10 high-voltage power lines to provide 80% of Gaza’s electricity consumption — some 120 megawatts — at an estimated monthly cost of some 40 million Israeli shekels ($11 million). Israel deducts the cost from the taxes it collects for the PA. In September 2016, the PA signed an agreement with the Israeli Finance Ministry on resolving a debt of 1.78 billion shekels ($491 million) it had accrued to the Israel Electric Corporation, in installments to be spread over five years.
The PA’s announcement is not necessarily the result of economic constraints. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made the dramatic decision to cast off all responsibility for Gaza after the new Hamas leader there, Yahya Sinwar, established a committee to run the daily affairs of the Gaza Strip. Thus, Hamas effectively completed the removal of the PA from Gaza. It is not entirely clear what got Abbas so angry, given that since the revolution, the PA has not been allowed to exercise any military or civilian power in the enclave. The prevailing view is that Abbas got sick and tired of propping up the Hamas rulers: While the PA was transferring money each month to pay the salaries of tens of thousands of its former employees in Gaza, fund power supplies and maintain public facilities, most of Hamas’ financial resources were being used for its military buildup and the digging of tunnels to be used for terror attacks against Israel.
