In Gaza, pressure builds on Hamas to solve power crisis amid heat wave

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A scorching heat wave in the Gaza Strip has worsened the power crisis in the besieged enclave, pushing activists to launch grassroots campaigns condemning Hamas’ failure to resolve the decadeslong crisis and demanding the movement to reveal where the money is going that it has been collecting from electricity bills.

Abdel Hamid Abdel Atti, a journalist with the local Al-Watan radio, started in mid-July a popular campaign on social media to pressure local authorities into resolving the power crisis that Gazans have been suffering from for nearly two decades. In a Facebook post, he asked Gazans to tweet the Arabic hashtag #Fourth-Generator, in reference to the out-of-service fourth generator of Gaza’s sole power plant. Since then, Palestinians have widely joined in the campaign, expressing their growing anger and frustration at Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip.

“Qatar has supported Gazans with $10 million per month since 2018, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) is paying the bill of the electricity transported into Gaza from the Israeli side. The question remains: Where does the money [which Hamas] collects from the energy sector go? Why does the fourth generator continue to be out of service?” Abdel Atti told Al-Monitor.

Gaza has been struggling with severe power shortages since Israel bombed the power plant in June 2006, bringing it to a complete halt. Since then, the power plant has been repaired, but running only on three generators, while the fourth has been out of service due to fuel shortages caused by the Israeli siege imposed since 2007. 

Today, the power plant operates at a capacity of 90 megawatts (MW) and the Israeli power grid provides the enclave with 120 MW. The peak demand for electricity in the summer and winter hits 600 MW per day, which means that the energy deficit ranges between 60% and 65%. As temperatures soared in July, electricity supply to households has been reduced to six hours a day, leaving Gazans without power for more than 12 hours.

Abdel Atti explained that power outages have caused food in refrigerators to spoil and halted the operation of wastewater treatment plants, which are now dumping the untreated water into the sea, causing major pollution at Gaza’s beaches, one of the few outlets for Gazans during the summer heat. Adding to their woes, Gazans also do not have access to air conditioners or fans due to the power cuts.

He said the official bodies have yet to respond to the campaign, and pledged to continue to mobilize the public opinion against this reality until a solution is found.

“Al-Virus al-Sakher” (“Satirical Virus”) Instagram account, which is run by unidentified Palestinian activists with more than 152,000 followers, organized a similar campaign calling for an end to the power crisis.

In a post on its Instagram page in mid-July, the group warned Hamas that it would organize a “mass revolution across the Gaza Strip” if the problem of power outages is not resolved and if power supply does not increase to 12 hours per day. The page also demanded that Hamas halts the use of the so-called smart meters.

Since July 2022, the Hamas-run Gaza Electricity Distribution Corporation has been forcing citizens to install prepaid smart meters in their homes, in what the company says is a way to alleviate the power crisis and ensure that all subscribers are paying their electricity bills. Citizens pay a fixed rate to receive a specific amount of kilowatts (8 kWh costs $1) on their smart meters. Once the prepaid electricity is consumed, the customer has to pay for more kilowatts, or else he is disconnected from the grid.  

“Prepaid meters do not take into account the difficult economic conditions experienced by Gazans, 80% of whom live below the poverty line [according to data from the Popular Committee Against the Siege in the Gaza Strip],” Khamis Bahtiti, a resident from al-Daraj neighborhood, in eastern Gaza City, told Al-Monitor. “The project aims to collect revenues for the authorities’ treasury without any improvement in the power service.”

An admin of “Al-Virus al-Sakher” page, who declined to be named, told Al-Monitor that the group “will soon begin mobilizing its followers and calling on all Gaza residents to hold peaceful demonstrations to demand that Hamas respect legitimate civil rights, most notably supplying citizens with electricity.”

“It is time to act so that our children and future generations do not go through the same suffering we are experiencing,” the source said, blaming Hamas for the power crisis.

Muhammad Thabet, director of public relations and media at the Gaza Electricity Distribution Corporation, told Al-Monitor that the operation of the fourth generator is not a radical solution to the power crisis. He explained that it is a short-term solution that would increase power supply to eight hours a day, instead of the six hours at present. But even with its operation, the plant can’t provide uninterrupted 24-hour power supply, he noted.

Thabet said that the Gaza power plant is the party in charge of operating the fourth generator. The plant’s executive director, Walid Sayel, told Al-Monitor that the plant is ready to operate the fourth generator if the fuel needed is made available.

Zafer Melhem, chairman of the PA’s Energy and Natural Resources Authority, told Al-Monitor, “The Gaza power crisis is the result of the mismanagement of Gaza’s energy sector.”

He explained that the PA pays Israel 40 million Israeli shekels ($10.8 million) per month to supply the Gaza Strip with electricity from Israeli grids under the Oslo Accord, while the Hamas-run distribution company collects 35 million to 40 million shekels ($9.4 to $10.8 million) per month from Gazans in electricity bills. “God alone knows where these funds go,” he said.

Melhem stressed that the money Hamas collects from electricity bills is enough to buy fuel to run the entire power plant, including the fourth generator, and is sufficient to build solar power plant projects, which would significantly increase supply hours.