Echo71Niner

Gaza’s power authority has said the blockaded enclave’s sole power plant will run out of fuel within hours, leaving the Palestinian territory without electricity after Israel cut off supplies in retaliation to the recent attacks by Hamas, the armed group that runs Gaza.

Palestinian Energy Authority Chairman Thafer Melhem told Voice of Palestine radio on Wednesday that the plant would shut down in the afternoon in Gaza, where about 2.3 million people live in one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

“This threatens to plunge the Strip into complete darkness and make it impossible to continue providing all basic life services, all of which depend on electricity, and it will not be possible to operate them partially with generators in light of the prevention of fuel supplies from Rafah Gate,” said a statement issued by Gaza’s authorities on Wednesday.

“This catastrophic situation creates a humanitarian crisis for all residents of the Gaza Strip,” it said.

The statement referred to Israel’s retaliation “as the dirtiest crime of collective punishment against defenceless civilians in modern history”.

It called on the international community to move quickly to stop “this crime against humanity and this multi-form mass murder”.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said “the fuel stock to operate the generators in the Gaza Strip hospitals will end tomorrow, Thursday, which will exacerbate the disastrous conditions in the hospitals”.

All of Gaza’s crossings are closed, making it impossible to bring in fuel for the power plant or the generators on which residents and hospitals have long relied.