This year, people in Gaza had electricity for an average of 13 hours a day. The information comes from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which receives data from the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company.
So this year it’s roughly the average 12 to 13 hours of electricity per day since 2019. In 2017 and 2018 it was only 7 hours per day.
Gaza has as much electricity as Israel allows, aside from negligible solar power production and minimal fuel smuggling for generators. In addition to the Hamas tunnels, there is, so to speak, smuggling through “private” tunnels by people who want to bypass Israel or do not want to pay taxes to the Islamic dictatorship. But there is nothing in the desert of supplies.
There are generators in hospitals and some other public utilities. There is only one thermoelectric power plant in Gaza to generate energy, and its operation relies on diesel imported from Israel. As of 2019, this plant has generated 15 to 17% of the electricity needs of this country, where 2.2 million Palestinians are imprisoned. Transmission lines from Israel cover another 27 to 28% of demand. The rest is missing.
The majority of gasoline and diesel imported by Gaza in 2022 (91%) came from Egypt. The remaining 9% come from Israel. But since 2018 there has been no electricity from there to the neighbor, as the OCHA report shows.
The situation was even worse in the fighting and occupation of Gaza this century. What will be the consequences of the even more brutal war predicted for 2023?
We’re just talking about energy. There is still a lack of food. Gaza used to be selfsufficient in fresh produce, but relies on imports for all other food. The shortage of medicines and hospital supplies will worsen. The energy numbers are therefore an almost aseptic example of misfortune.
Israel is preparing for an attack, it is not known how, when and for how long. It continues to mobilize troops and collect materials. How long will the total blockade, including preparation, fighting and “pacification” of the cemetery, last? At the moment it is a mix of a medieval site and devastating bombings from World War II. Something even worse has to come.
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Aside from organizations like Doctors Without Borders, which released an angry statement on the matter this Thursday, and the Red Cross/Red Crescent and other humanitarian institutions, almost no one with power or practical influence is speaking about the issue. How long will the “international community” and the “West” tolerate the Garrote?
There are three operational land crossings from the Gaza Strip, two to Israel, one to Egypt. The Egyptian government has asked that aid to Gaza be sent to El Arish airport, 52 km from the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip. And he doesn’t say anything more. What will you do with the materials?
Egypt has agreements with Israel on how to deal with the Gaza blockade. Will you break the pact? Will you let trucks pass? Will Israel allow it or turn a blind eye? Or will you leave everything on the Palestinian side of Rafah in ruins?
The world’s governments in power seem to assume that there will be a certain rate of slaughter, mutilation, starvation and other vectors of apocalypse in Gaza: an acceptable or inevitable level of massacre, let’s say. At least in public this was the case. If there are negotiations to provide relief, there is no news about it other than rumors. For Israel, which wants to expel Hamas from the country, it makes no military sense to allow humanitarian aid until it has control over the distribution of food, fuel, medicine or even water in Gaza.
It is a horror with no end in sight.
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