Gaza electricity protests continue as PA, Hamas trade heated accusations
Jan. 17, 2017 5:58 P.M. (Updated: Jan. 17, 2017 5:58 P.M.)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=774968

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(DFLP) organized a protest on Monday evening demanding a solution “once and
for all” to the Gaza electricity crisis, as Hamas and the Palestinian
Authority (PA) exchanged more barbs blaming one another for the severe power
shortages in the blockaded coastal enclave.

The majority of the Gaza Strip received only three hours of power a day in
between 12-hour blackouts for more than a week earlier this month, with
recent Qatari aid helping to bring back the Palestinian territory to its
usual schedule of eight hours of electricity followed by eight hours
without.

"This protest comes to affirm that our people have the right to live in
dignity and possess all amenities of life, especially electricity 24 hours a
day, especially in the winter given the very cold weather," a DFLP leader,
Abd al-Bari al-Talla, told the demonstrators in the al-Maghazi refugee camp
in the central Gaza Strip.

Al-Talla notably urged the Gaza electricity company to "stop messing with
citizens' lives and burdening the Palestinian economy with huge losses,"
calling on the organization to start collecting bills from government
institutions, security services, civil organizations, companies, and private
universities instead of complaining about a lack of revenue.

He also called on the PA to completely exempt the Gaza Strip’s only power
plant from paying fuel taxes, as well as to take steps to improve the
electricity network in the small Palestinian territory and to rely more on
natural gas.

Fatah and Hamas, the respective ruling parties in the occupied West Bank and
Gaza, have accused one another of bearing the blame for the situation in
Gaza.

In a government meeting on Tuesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said
the responsibility for the crisis fell on Hamas and Gaza’s electricity
company for mishandling the situation.

"When everything is set straight, we will be ready to exert as many efforts
as we can to provide electricity,” Abbas said. “But before that, they have
to face the people and the people must know that they are to take the blame,
and that they messed with their people's fate."

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said that Abbas’ remarks proved that the
Palestinian president "plays a role in creating the electricity crisis,
constraining the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, and inciting against
Hamas."

Abbas, Barhum added, "exposes his obvious intentions to impede the efforts
exerted by everyone to bring the crisis and the suffering of Gaza residents
to an end."

On Monday, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah chastised Hamas, saying
that "in order to bring the electricity crisis in Gaza to an end once and
for all, Hamas' security must show some responsibility and allow the
consensus government to take charge of all responsibilities in the Gaza
Strip."

Hamdallah said that more than a third of the PA’s budget deficit in 2016
could be attributed to expenses in the infrastructure sectors in Gaza,
estimating that the West Bank-based government had spent 91 million shekels
($23.9 million) on Gaza’s electricity network that year.

"It is unbelievable that the consensus government covers all the expenses of
all vital sectors while only Hamas runs the Gaza Strip," Hamdallah said.
"Frankly speaking, there is a de facto government in Gaza imposing taxes and
controlling every aspect of life."

Senior Hamas official Ismail Radwan responded to Hamdallah’s accusations on
Monday evening, saying that the movement would be ready to pass on the
control of all ministries and institutions in the Gaza Strip to the PA if
the latter took on all of its responsibilities towards the Gaza Strip.

Radwan accused Hamdallah of "turning all the facts upside down to mislead
public opinion," claiming that the PA made $100 million each month on taxes
for diesel and other basic commodities entering the Gaza Strip.

Fatah and Hamas have been embroiled in conflict since Hamas' election
victory in 2006 elections in the Gaza Strip, which erupted into a violent
conflict between the two movements as both attempted to consolidate control
over the territory.

Despite numerous attempts at reconciling the groups, Palestinian leadership
has repeatedly failed to follow through on promises of reconciliation and
holding of long-overdue elections, as both movements have frequently blamed
each other for numerous political failures.