GAZA: Gaza City remains in darkness though fuel shipments to power plant are set to resume

Lights remain out in Gaza city though European Union says it will resume funding for fuel to power the coastal Palestinian enclave. The European Union agreed on Tuesday (August 21) to resume funding fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip's main power plant after receiving assurances the bloc will have greater oversight to ensure revenues are not diverted to Hamas. Starved of EU-funded and Israeli-supplied fuel, the plant cut off power to large parts of the Gaza Strip, causing widespread blackouts, which continued Tuesday night, and greater hardship in the impoverished territory two months after Hamas seized control. Hamas welcomed the decision. The EU stopped paying for the fuel, provided by a private Israeli company, because it was concerned that Hamas would try to use the sale of electricity to fund its government in Gaza, bypassing a European-backed embargo of the Islamist group. The EU has been paying for fuel shipments to the Gaza power plant since 2006. The last EU-funded delivery was August 15. The decision to resume funding for fuel was announced after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said he gave assurances to the EU that his government had no plans to introduce any new taxes on electricity generated by the plant. Palestinian Information Minister Riyad al-Malki, who serves in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's government based in the West Bank, said resumption of EU payments was "conditional" and could be halted again if a joint European-Palestinian committee of auditors uncovered evidence that funds were being diverted to Hamas. Hamas accused Abbas of pressuring the EU to suspend fuel payments to try to undermine the group and its control in Gaza. One of Abbas's first decrees after Fatah forces were routed in Gaza was to exempt its 1.5 million residents from paying taxes, a move designed to keep Hamas from collecting any revenues.

ITN Source | August 22, 2007

Tags:. .causing. .sale. .bank. .paying. .control