GAZA, Israel (Reuters) – Palestinians in the Gaza Strip prepared for Iftar on Tuesday (June 13) by candlelight as Israel began reducing the electricity supply to the Gaza Strip after the Palestinian Authority limited how much it pays for power to the enclave run by Hamas.
The decision by Israel’s security cabinet is expected to shorten by 45 minutes the daily average of four hours of power that Gaza’s 2 million residents receive from an electricity grid dependent on Israeli supplies, the officials said.
Israel charges the PA 40 million shekels ($11 million) a month for electricity, deducting that from the transfers of Palestinian tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Authority. Israel does not engage with Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group.
Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas’s Fatah movement in 2007, and several attempts at reconciliation, most recently in 2014, have failed. Hamas has accused Abbas of trying to turn the screw on them to make political concessions.
