Your trusted source

Press TV has conducted an interview with Hani al-Bassous, professor with Islamic University of Gaza, Gaza about the energy crisis in the Gaza Strip following the closure of the sole power plant there due to a lack of fuel.

- Tell us about this situation. It seems that it is going from bad to worse with the situation in Gaza and now the sole power plant has been basically shut down. Tell me how that affects the day to day lives of the people of Gaza.

- Life in Gaza has been difficult. Most people living in a serious situation. From 2006 the population in the Gaza strip has been living under constant blockade.

Everything has been affected... now we talk about electricity, which we can have only 6 hours per day. The only power plant in the Gaza strip has been shut down.

We used to have electricity 12 hours per day, now we only have six hours. Imagine how life could be where people only have 6 hours of electricity. So, most people are living in complete darkness. Hospitals will be affected - the Ministry of Health. Most aspects of our lives in the Gaza Strip have been badly affected.

It’s not something that has happened for the first time, this is often happening in the Gaza Strip where the Israeli army closes all the crossing points. There is no fuel, there is no electricity. Most equipment is not allowed in the Gaza Strip. This has happened mainly since 2006.

But for the past few hours the shortage has been in all aspects of life. The Israeli army has locked down the Gaza Strip completely for the past two days after a military escalation where the Israeli army was shooting at Palestinian militants and Palestinian civilians.

So, what’s happening now I think we will face most likely a catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, a humanitarian crisis if those crossing points will not be opened soon, especially as we are talking about the shortage of everything, but mainly fuel and electricity and this can affect all people in the Gaza Strip.

- How concerned are you that a full-fledged attack again by the Israelis, another war will be taking place in the Gaza Strip because we’ve seen an escalation of tension in general by the Israelis? How fearful or concerned are you about that possibility?

- Well, most people are so concerned about the possibility of having a new war, a new attack on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli occupation forces.

People have been living under insecurity and fear for decades. This situation has been really difficult as everyone can imagine. The occupation forces have been launching attacks on the Gaza Strip recently; however, the situation today has been quiet and calm.

The people are afraid of what’s going to come up in the next few days and the next few weeks. It’s not only about the attacks of the Israeli military forces against Palestinian militants and against Palestinian civilians – it’s more than this – it’s the suffocation of the Palestinian economy, it’s the siege, which has affected everything in our lives.

As I’ve said again and again we talk about the sewerage, the water, the fuel, everything has been spoiled by the occupation forces because they’ve locked the Gaza Strip.

Imagine at one point eight million Palestinians are living in a prison. It’s an open-air prison. People are not able to leave and come back to the Gaza Strip and this is because of the Israeli occupation locking the Gaza Strip.

At the same time people are afraid of what’s going to come up because they think that war is imminent and that we might face an Israeli attack at any minute on the Gaza Strip – despite the calm, despite the truce.

But the situation is not as easy as you can imagine, the Israeli army has been threatening to re-occupy the Gaza Strip. We witnessed for the past few days one of the Israeli ministers, (Avigdor) Lieberman, he was saying that the Israeli army should reoccupy the Gaza Strip.

It’s not only Lieberman. Many Israeli politicians and military leaders have been threatening to attack the Gaza Strip - having the force, having the military, having the power they can invade, they can attack the Gaza Strip.

And we can understand how life could be more difficult because people would not be able to stand such a situation. The Palestinian militants, the Palestinian factions like Hamas and Islamic Jihad would do their best to defend the Palestinian people and to defend the Gaza Strip, but at the same time when we talk about the humanitarian situation, things will be difficult because the blockade is continuous, it does not stop.

This requires an intervention by the international community and regional actors.