Research from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom has found that the more than two million Palestinians living in this coastal enclave suffer daily power outages that can last more than 12 hours.
Research found that the people who suffer the most from this problem experience higher levels of anxiety and depression.
Their well-being improved as access to reliable energy sources increased, reported the team, which surveyed about 350 families in the region.
93 percent of survey participants reported experiencing moderate to severe or severe anxiety, compared to six percent of the West Bank population.
“We found that electricity problems, especially when combined with other stressors associated with life in Gaza, lead to serious psychological problems,” said Raya al-Dadah, co-author of the study.
For his part, the lead author of the study, Mazen AbuQamar from Al-Azhar University in Gaza, highlighted that “intermittent access to electricity can affect social and community networks in many ways, including reducing people’s opportunities to study or access functional facilities.” Health services.”
Last month, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that the lack of electricity in the area was “seriously affecting the availability of essential services, particularly health, water and sanitation”.
This problem undermines the already fragile living conditions of Palestinians living there, he said.
In a graphic, OCHA highlighted that the area is averaging just 14 hours of electricity per day so far this year, and while that is low, it improves on the data for 2022 and 2021, when 12 and 13 were reported, respectively.
However, he clarified that in July, in the middle of a heat wave, residents in the area only had 11 hours of light a day.
Recently, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Middle East warned that the Gaza Strip could face famine in the coming months due to the financial crisis affecting the organization.
Israel has blocked the strip since 2007, when the Islamic Resistance Movement came to power there.
According to the United Nations Trade and Development Conference, the total cost of Israel’s blockade of Gaza and economic restrictions from 2007 to 2018 was $16.7 billion, or six times the country’s gross domestic product.
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