“We have not received fuel since Thursday morning”. This was the message conveyed by the agitated Chairman of the Gaza Generating Company, Rafik Malikha, following the closure of three out of four of the company’s generators on Friday.

Although it is unsure as to how many people in Gaza will be affected by this fuel shortage, with estimations varying between sources over whether the Gaza Generating Company is responsible for a quarter, a third or three quarters of Gaza’s electricity, it is clear that Israel supplies the plant with all of its fuel. According to Palestinian and Israeli officials, Gaza utilizes roughly 200 megawatts of power per day. Sixty percent is from the Israeli Electric Corporation, 32% from the Gaza Generating Company and 8% from Egypt.

Israeli sources claim they have ceased the transportation of fuel to Gaza for “security reasons”, namely the consistent attacks on Israeli border crossings by Palestinian activist groups.

Since Hamas took control of Gaza on June 14, Israel has closed all crossings, transforming Gaza into an enclosed prison of poverty and humanitarian crisis. Erez, Karni and Nahal Oz are now partially open but not nearly transporting the sufficient amount of aid required. In addition, when these crossings are attacked, they are closed thus further exacerbating the situation in the Strip.

As a result of these closures, the densely populated Gaza Strip, standing at around 1.4 million people, is swiftly becoming a “totally aid-dependent society” as Gaza UNRWA chief, John Ging, reported last week.

Before the June confrontations in Gaza, Derar Abu Sissi, Director of the Gaza Generating Company, stated that the plant had two weeks of fuel reserves, whereas now they are constantly working with a deficit, forced to use whatever fuel comes to them. An Israeli spokesman confirmed how reliant the company is on Israel by pronouncing that 1.4 million liters of fuel were transported from Israel to Gaza between last Sunday and Wednesday.

Rafik Malikha has urged the European Union and the Palestinian Authority to intervene so that Gaza it not plunged further into humanitarian distress while Abu Sissi warns that if the Nahal Oz crossing remains closed and the company does not receive any fuel by Sunday, they will be compelled to stop nearly all electricity production leaving approximately 400,000 Gazans in darkness.

On Saturday, Israeli sources announced they would be willing to permit fuel to cross into the Gaza Strip.