The Gaza Strip has been without a functioning power plant since the beginning of November, when the plant ran out of diesel fuel as a result of the tightening of a seven-year-long blockade imposed on the territory by Israel with Egyptian support.The plant didn't run out of fuel because of any Israeli blockade. It ran out because Hamas refused to pay the going rates according to existing agreements with the PA. They chose to let their people suffer instead.
The plant itself was only reopened last year after it was targeted by an Israeli airstrike in the 2006 assault on the Strip.Ma'an has been writing this in other articles as well. It is completely false. The power plant has been running since December 2007.
In another Ma'an article:
UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness said that large regions of the Gaza Strip are a "disaster area" and called on the world community to lift the Israeli blockade in order to allow recovery efforts to proceed, in a statement sent to Ma'an.The Kerem Shalom crossing has never - not once - hit its capacity of allowing goods and aid into Gaza. Most days it is only at about half of what it can handle. If the closure was causing the problems in Gaza, wouldn't we be seeing Kerem Shalom over capacity?
Israel used to limit a lot of goods into Gaza. That ended over four years ago - since then, any goods that could not be used against Israel militarily have been allowed in. But anti-Israel organizations like UNRWA like to lie to pressure Israel.