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Experts: Hamas Lash Out Regarding Power Plant Shut Down “Insane”

by TheTower.org Staff |

Hamas has for the better part of a decade been regularly blasted for manufacturing humanitarian crises by shutting down the single power plant in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. In 2008 the terror group plunged Gaza into darkness and claimed that Israel was preventing sufficient fuel from reaching the territory. Israeli officials pointed out that electricity was still flowing into the territory from Israeli plants and explained that Hamas deliberately causing the blackout.

Hamas has also at times simply refused to accept fuel shipments necessary to run the power plant. Other times the group’s operatives have stolen fuel for terror operations, including from hospitals.

Today Hamas again shut down the power plant, triggering power outages across the Gaza Strip. This time Hamas officials blamed Egypt and the Palestinian Authority (PA), the latter controlled by the rival Palestinian Fatah faction:

[Energy authority deputy chairman Fathi el-Sheikh] Khalil blamed the power outage on Egypt’s destruction of tunnels used for bringing fuel to Gaza and accused the Western-backed Palestinian Authority of charging Hamas too much for its fuel. “Less than 50 percent of the needs of the Gaza Strip are currently covered by electricity from Israel (and) we can no longer get Egyptian fuel due to the destruction of tunnels from Egypt,” he said. “We tried to get fuel from Israel via the Palestinian Authority, but it has imposed prohibitive taxes.”…

“The plant will remain shut until fuel supplies resume from Egypt through the tunnels or the Rafah border crossing, or from Israel if the Palestinian Authority agrees not to impose the heavy taxes,” said Khalil.

Jonathan Schanzer, the vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, took to Twitter to express skepticism regarding Hamas’s accusations:

 

[Photo: Mr.david.w / Wiki Commons]

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