Just Earth News | @justearthnews | 11 Oct 2023, 10:48 am Print
Photo courtesy: UNI
Gaza has lost all means of electricity after the only power station in the Palestinian enclave ran out of fuel and had to shut down, media reports said Wednesday evening.
People in the Gaza Strip will have to rely on generators now if they have enough diesel to run them.
This comes as Israel continues its missile attack on the Palestinian territory following Hamas' surprise attack last Saturday.
With no electricity, Gaza will be soon running out of water or operational elevators, and people won't be able to charge mobile phones.
"The only power plant in the Gaza Strip stopped functioning at 2 PM (4.30 PM IST)," Gaza Energy Authority chief Jalal Ismail told the local media. He had earlier warned the plant was running short of fuel.
"It is very difficult - we don't have water... internet... electricity," Kamal Mashharawi, a Gaza resident, told the BBC, "We tried to go to the nearest supermarket but it was unsafe because of the explosions."
"I don't think civilians deserve to die - they should be left out of the conflict," he said.
Electricity shut-off in Gaza has sparked fears of an additional crisis as hospitals struggle to treat thousands of people who have been injured in Israel's devastating aerial strikes.
Israel on Monday ordered a "complete siege" of Gaza, a 365 square km blockaded patch of land with a population of 2.3 million people.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told reporters that: "No electricity, no food, no water, and no gas - it's all closed." Shortly after Gallant's statement, Israel stopped supply of fuel, water, and food to Gaza.
Meanwhile, the death toll in Israel over the conflict between Israel and Palestine touched 1,200 while more than 900 people were killed in the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, media reports said.
The Israeli military has said hundreds of thousands of troops are near the Gaza border.
The military said troops are "ready to execute the mission we have been given," BBC News reported.
More than 123,000 people have been internally displaced in Gaza as a result of ongoing Israeli attacks, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Monday.
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