In new power play, Abbas cuts Gaza’s electricity

GIVING IT BACK

With the prospect looming of a Middle East peace initiative by a new US administration more sympathetic to Israel, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has decided to turn the screw on the Hamas group that has kept Gaza out of his control for a decade.

Abbas’s Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) on Thursday told Israel it would no longer pay for the electricity Israel supplies to Gaza, a move that could lead to a complete power shutdown in the territory, whose 2 million people already endure blackouts for much of the day.

Israel doesn’t engage directly with Hamas, regarding the Islamist group as a terrorist organisation. The PA declined to say why it had taken the step, but had already put pressure on Hamas by withholding the Israeli fuel that until two weeks ago powered Gaza’s only generating plant, and slashing the salaries of the civil servants who are one of the mainstays of Gaza’s struggling economy.

Hamas official Ismail Rudwan reacted with fury, warning of “an explosion in the face of the Zionist occupation” and saying that anyone who had “collaborated with the occupation” would have cause for regret, whether from the PA or not. “We will not pay a political price for this crime,” he said.

Ostensibly, the reasons for the withholding of fuel and salary cuts were nonpayment of bills, and shortage of foreign donor funds.

But regaining a measure of control over Gaza could empower Abbas politically as Israel and the Palestinians await a widely expected push by US President Donald Trump for a revival of peace efforts that stalled in 2014.

Palestinian PM Rami alHamdallah made no secret of the PA’s political motives, saying the lifting of the salary cut depended on Hamas moving towards reconciliation. — Reuters