Gaza power plant might shut down Thursday - from lack of maintenance

Another Gaza power crisis is on the horizon, and again it has nothing to do with Israel.

The head of Palestine Electricity Company, Walid Saad Sayel, warns that the Energy Authority owes millions for maintenance of the power plant. While the free fuel from Dubai has been helping keep the plant running, no money has been coming for the provision of equipment and spare parts for maintenance work in the Gaza power plant, as well as payment for the maintenance crews and staff, forcing the plant to stop its generator this week.

He said that both the Hamas and Fatah governments owe money to the company.

Sayel added that the proposed natural gas pipeline from Egypt to Gaza to run the plant would help things considerably. That pipeline would cost between $20-30 million.

Given that Egyptians are suffering from their own energy shortages, it will be interesting to see if that pipeline -if it ever gets built - also gets sabotaged the way that the one to Israel (and Jordan) was, repeatedly, since the Egyptian revolution.