GAZA'S only electrical plant shut down last night after Israel blocked the shipment of fuel for it, plunging the area into darkness and sending beleaguered residents to stock up on food and batteries in anticipation of long, dark, cold days ahead.
Israel was condemned by a UN agency and human rights groups, but government officials said the move was a response to Palestinian militant groups that fire rockets at southern Israel every day.
Israel sealed all crossings into Gaza last week becau
se of a spike in rocket barrages, cutting off fuel. Several weeks ago Israel reduced the supply as a pressure tactic.
In addition to the fuel it receives from Israel to power its electrical plant, Gaza gets about two-thirds of its electricity directly from Israel. Israeli officials promised that supply would not be affected.
Hamas officials shut down the plant and plunged Gaza City into total darkness, said Gaza Energy Authority head Kanan Obeid. Minutes later, Gaza residents started a candlelight march as a protest.
The regular fuel shipment from Israel did not arrive yesterday because the fuel terminal was closed, and the plant has nearly no reserves, said Rafik Maliha, director of the power plant.
Health Ministry official Dr Moaiya Hassanain warned that the fuel cut-off would cause a health catastrophe. "We have the choice to either cut electricity on babies in the maternity ward or heart surgery patients or stop operating rooms," he said.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel accused Hamas of creating an artificial emergency. He said the blackout was "a Hamas ploy to pretend there is some kind of crisis to attract international sympathy".
Late last night, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appealed to Israel to lift the blockade, said Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh. Abbas effectively rules only the West Bank after Hamas expelled his forces from Gaza last June.
Residents of Gaza City were buying up batteries and candles, as well as basic foods like rice, flour and cooking oil, said grocery store owner Sami Mousa. More would be doing the same, he said, but "the problem is that the people don't have the money to buy". Bakeries stopped operating because of the blockade, bakers said, because they had neither power nor flour.
The Hamas-linked Popular Resistance Committees threatened to break the blockade by crashing through the border with Egypt "by force".
There were no signs of panic, as Gazans have been living with fuel cutbacks, power outages and shortages since Islamic Hamas militants overran the seaside territory in June, triggering international sanctions.
Earlier, Obeid called on householders to cut back their use of electrical appliances. The UN organisation in charge of Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, warned the Israeli blockade would drastically affect hospitals, sewage treatment plants and water facilities.
"The logic of this defies basic humanitarian standards," said Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency.
Human rights groups also condemned the fuel cut-off. Oxfam called it "ineffective as well as unlawful". Gisha, an Israeli group that has fought the fuel cutbacks in Israel's Supreme Court, said "punishing Gaza's 1.5 million civilians does not stop the rocket fire; it only creates an impossible 'balance' of human suffering on both sides of the border."
Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, but many see Israel as still responsible, since it controls most land, sea and air access to the territory.
Israeli Cabinet minister Zeev Boim said that rather than condemning Israel's move, the UN should condemn Palestinian militants for subjecting Israeli civilians to barrages of rockets. "I don't hear the UN's voice," Boim said.
ROCKET ATTACKS TEST PATIENCEISRAEL has previously pledged that measures against Gaza should not cause "a humanitarian crisis". But Israeli officials say 2,000 rocket attacks have been launched from Gaza since Israel withdrew from the area in 2005.
Although Israel no longer occupies Gaza with troops, it retains control over the airspace and the coast, and over its own border with the territory. It also controls the flow of goods.
Israel wants to avoid major incursions if possible. The Geneva Convention states that an occupying power is obliged to protect civilians. But Israel has never accepted that it should apply in the Palestinian territories, arguing that the convention refers to occupied state sovereign territories.
