GAZA/CAIRO, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Egypt will let more
fuel into Gaza and increase the amount of electricity it
supplies to the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Egyptian
officials said on Tuesday, a move to ease a power crisis that
has embarrassed the ruling Hamas movement.
The Egyptian government said the amount of electricity
supplied to Gaza would be increased to 22 megawatts from an
existing 17 megawatts already supplied for free. In addition,
emergency diesel would also be supplied.
"The increase comes in the framework of a quick attempt to
relieve the suffering of the Palestinian people," Hassan Younes,
the Egyptian minister responsible for electricity and power,
said in a statement.
Gaza depends heavily on fuel smuggled in from Egypt to keep
its lone power station on line. But supplies were unexpectedly
cut last week, forcing Hamas, which runs the coastal territory
largely cut off by Israel, to impose lengthy blackouts.
Many locals have accused Hamas of mismanaging the situation,
relying too heavily on smuggled fuel, which it taxes heavily,
rather than seeking alternative sources of energy via legal
channels on which it could not impose levies.
The crisis enabled the Palestinian Authority (PA), which
holds sway in the West Bank and is often at loggerheads with
Islamist Hamas, to intervene with Egypt and broker a deal.
Gaza's energy supply is bad at the best of times, with a
rickety infrastructure system badly degraded during fighting
over the past five years between Israel and Hamas, which is
committed to destroying the Jewish state.
Omar Kittana, head of the PA Energy Authority, told Reuters
Egypt was ready to provide the Gaza Strip with emergency diesel
in the coming days and would also increase the amount of
electricity it supplied to the territory.
In future, regular diesel supplies would be trucked into
Gaza via the Israeli border crossing at Kerem Shalom, he said.
"Egypt wants to legalise the matter and end the smuggling of
fuel because it comes at the expense of the Egyptian people," he
told Reuters, saying that the smuggled diesel was subsidised by
Cairo and was meant only for use within Egypt.
Kittana said the plan was to increase Egyptian electricity
flows to 62 megawatts within two to four months.
Senior Hamas leaders are in Cairo and Taher Al-Nono, the
Hamas Gaza spokesman, said he was optimistic that a deal would
be struck following further discussions.
There has been widespread anger across Gaza over the recent
blackouts, with electricity available just six hours a day
during one of the coldest weeks of the year. There has also been
a severe shortage of diesel for cars.
Hamas suspended imports of fuel for the power plant from
Israel last year and instead relied on smuggled stock, and was
totally unprepared for sudden halt to supplies from Egypt.
No explanation was given for the disruption, but some
newspaper commentators speculated that Egypt was looking to
pressure Hamas to support a drive to mend bridges with President
Mahmoud Abbas's PA and back a Palestinian unity government.
Abbas is due to meet Hamas leaders in Cairo on Thursday.
Until fuel starts to flow through Kerem Shalom, which
borders Israel, Gaza and Egypt, diesel will continue to arrive
through the network of smuggling tunnels that connect southern
Gaza to Egypt, a Palestinian source told Reuters.
Officials in Gaza said their old plant produces 80 megawatts
at full capacity, while Israel feeds Gaza with 120 megawatts.
Kittana said there was a move to resolve longstanding problems
by building greater transmission capabilities at the border with
Egypt and boost capacity there to 300 megawatts.
"The project may take at least 18 months to be ready and by
its completion it will resolve the Gaza power problem once for
for all," he said, adding it would cost $50 million to complete.
(Additinoal reporting by Tom Perry; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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