Chronic Power Shortages Endanger Health of Gazans - ICRC

By Staff, Agencies

The International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] in Gaza has warned that power shortages pose a threat to the health and daily life for the population of the besieged Gaza Strip, saying 80% of Gazans live much of their day in the dark.

In a new study, the ICRC found that electricity supply reaches 10-12 hours a day in the coastal enclave, noting that “extreme heat and import restrictions of fuel to run the Gaza power plant pose a threat to health and daily life for Gazans.”

According to the study, most of Gazans are unable to refrigerate food and wastewater treatment plants are unable to operate because of the power crisis.

It also said that 94% of those surveyed by the ICRC said the prolonged situation had affected their mental health.

The ICRC noted that the electricity supply decreased to three to four hours a day during the latest ‘Israeli’ aggression on Gaza in May that damaged infrastructure.

Tel Aviv launched a brutal bombing campaign against the besieged Gaza Strip on May 10, following Palestinian retaliation against violent raids on worshipers at al-Aqsa Mosque and the regime’s plans to force a number of Palestinian families out of their homes at the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East al-Quds. About 260 Palestinians were killed in the 11-day Zionist offensive.

In the study, Palestinians describe how daily life in Gaza has become extremely difficult for years due to the unavailability of electricity where “it is almost impossible to do housework, devices frequently malfunction when power is out, there is no running water, schoolwork cannot be finished, people have to shoulder a massive financial burden to buy extra power [in the form of generators] and the power cuts even contribute to environmental pollution that impacts people's health.”

The head of ICRC's Sub delegation in Gaza urged the international community to work towards improving the situation in the coastal enclave.

The Gaza Strip has been under an ‘Israeli’ land, air and sea blockade since June 2007, after Hamas, which has vowed to resist the Zionist occupation, rose to power in the enclave, where two million people live. The crippling Gaza blockade has caused a sharp decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty in the strip.