Gettysburg Times · Gettysburg, Pennsylvania · 21 August 2007

CP-2007-004

EU cuts electricity funding to Gaza, says Hamas ‘diverting’ revenues

Ibrahim Barzak, Associated Press Writer, Gaza City

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Transcribed from the clipping

“GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Electricity in Gaza on Monday became the latest battleground in the struggle between the coastal strip’s Islamic Hamas rulers and their Fatah rivals, who have accused Hamas of pocketing electricity revenues.

The losers are hundreds of thousands of Gazans, who have been plunged into darkness as European donors cut off key electricity aid. On Sunday, the European Union stopped paying for fuel to power generators that produce electricity for at least half of Gaza’s population of 1.4 million.

On Monday, it said the payments would not resume because it had received word that Hamas was ‘diverting’ electricity revenues.

‘We are ready to resume our support to the Gaza power plant within hours once we receive the appropriate assurances that all the funds will be exclusively used for the benefit of the Gaza population,’ the European Commission — the EU’s executive branch — said in a statement.

Hamas has controlled Gaza since it vanquished Fatah gunmen in fierce fighting in June. The Fatah-led government that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas set up in the West Bank has accused Hamas of siphoning off electricity revenues.

‘Hamas is collecting all the electricity fees and never pays the costs of the electricity,’ said [a Fatah official]… ‘In the next few days, the government will announce the investigations of the former director of the company, who stole money the EU donated,’ [said] Araj, a Hamas adviser.

In recent weeks, Hamas has been going door to door in Gaza ordering residents to pay long overdue electricity bills. While Hamas denies that it controls the electricity company, Fatah insists it does — citing the director’s arrest as evidence.

Jehad Hamad, a political analyst based in Gaza, said electricity is one of many battlegrounds the two sides are using to try to gain the upper hand. The Ramallah government, Hamad added, might be worried that Hamas has uncovered proof that Fatah officials skimmed off money from the electrical company in the past.

‘Electricity is a “hot-button” issue,’ he said. The suspension of the EU fuel payments dealt a harsh blow to at least 700,000 Palestinians who live in central Gaza. Electricity had already been cut back sharply last week after Israel closed a fuel crossing into the coastal territory, citing security concerns.

Israel reopened the passage Sunday, but the plant’s Israeli fuel supplier didn’t deliver fuel to the power plant, on instructions from the European Union.”

Context added by this archive

Written from Gaza City by a Palestinian reporter for the Associated Press. One quotation in the left column is cut by the clipping’s edge and the speaker’s name with it; nothing has been supplied for it.

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