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Israel to renew Gaza fuel supplies after blackout
Israel said on Saturday it will allow fresh deliveries of fuel into Gaza, after a freeze which plunged much of the impoverished Palestinian territory into darkness overnight. "Fuel deliveries will resume to the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning via the Nahal Oz crossing," a military spokesman told AFP. On Friday, the Israeli army confirmed it had barred deliveries via the Nahal Oz crossing for "security reasons." The Palestinian electricity company said on Friday that it had been forced to stop nearly all electricity production in Gaza because of the suspension of deliveries. "We are forced to stop three out of the station's four generators", its director Rafiq Maliha told reporters in Gaza. Gaza has a single 140-megawatt power plant that provides about three quarters of the territory's electricity needs. All of the fuel for the plant comes from Israel. The remainder of Gaza's electricity needs is supplied by Israel, Egypt and private electricity generators. Home to some 1.5 million largely impoverished people, Gaza is one of the world's most densely populated places. Posted by: Fred 2007-08-19 |
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