Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, coordinator of government activities in the territories, is warning that Israel cannot keep supplying Hamas with free electricity, and in the coming days it will reduce the power supply to the Gaza Strip. In an interview with BBC Arabic, Mordechai explained that Israel is the sole power supplier to the coastal enclave because Gaza’s only power station has been crippled, due to a dispute between Hamas and Fatah regarding payment for the diesel fuel needed to get it running.

Mordechai said that Israel supplies Gaza with 125 megawatts (MW), enough for only four hours of power a day for residents, and had adopted a decision to increase the amount by 100 MW. Last month, Mordechai accused Hamas of stealing electricity from residents to fulfill its operational needs and for use by the movement’s senior officials.

Ever since the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah stopped paying for Gaza’s power in the wake of the decision by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to cease PA involvement in Gaza, Israel has in fact been supplying Hamas' leaders in Gaza with power, for free. In the BBC interview, Mordechai claimed that top Hamas official Fathi Hamed, for example, has four wives, and power runs to the four separate homes he maintains 24 hours a day. Other residents have to make do with their four or so hours a day.

In January, Qatar transferred $12 million to the PA to buy diesel fuel for Gaza. At the same time, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan volunteered to help resolve Gaza’s persistent power shortage. These were all temporary measures. Last month, the money ran out, and the Gaza power station was shut down. By the way, none of the countries helping Gaza has offered to pay Israel for the 125 MW that it provides and that enables its residents and Hamas to survive, for the time being.