Inside Gaza where electricity has been cut off by the Israelis

Independent

11-03-2025

Food prices are soaring, hospitals have ground to a halt and people are burning rubbish to cook, Palestinian civilians and medics have warned after Israel suspended the entry of goods and electricity into Gaza.
The move has led to a hike in prices of essential food s, as well as fuel, forcing many to ration their meals. The disruption of power is also affecting wastewater treatment plants and a water desalination plant producing clean water.
Rahma Salem, 38, a mother of seven, said that food including meat, chicken and vegetables were disappearing and what was available - like potatoes - had nearly quadrupled in price.
'How can I feed my children? Even water has become less available after the announcement of cutting off electricity to desalination plants,' she said.
With the lack of cooking gas and now no firewood, she described how they were reduced to burning rubbish, including plastic, to try to cook, which is making her family sick.
Last week, Israel sparked condemnation from countries including the UK when it blocked the entry of supplies, including food, medicine, and fuel imports to the war-ravaged territory.
It said it was part of pressuring the Hamas militant group to extend the first phase of their ceasefire that ended last weekend.
In an echo of the siege it imposed in the earliest days of the war, on Sunday, the Israeli authorities then announced they would also cut off further electricity supplies.
Kifah Rahman, 53, who is in the heavily destroyed north of Gaza, said there is nothing to buy in the markets anymore.
'Everything is unavailable in the markets after the closure, and if you can find it, the prices are very expensive to buy, including flour, meat, vegetables, and fish,' she said. 'Our children are deprived of everything.'
Healthcare officials said they were concerned as hospital generators run out of fuel and supplies of medicines run low with the blockade on aid.
'The situation is catastrophic in the literal sense. The existing generators are worn out, and the fuel is not enough. There is no potable water; the simplest necessities of life are not available,' said Sohaib Al-Hamas, director of Kuwaiti Hospital.
He added that ambulances have stopped working as a result of the almost complete halt in the entry of petrol.
Israel launched an unprecedented assault on Gaza after the 7 October attacks on the south of the country by Hamas, which saw the militants kill over 1,200 people and take more than 251 hostages.
Since then, Israel's onslaught on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, left most of its people destitute, and razed much of the territory to the ground.
Israel had already cut the power supply at the start of the war, but on Sunday, Israel's Energy Minister Eli Cohen said he had instructed the Israel Electric Corporation not to sell electricity to Gaza in what he described as a means of pressure on Hamas to free hostages.
This would affect a wastewater treatment plant presently supplied with power, according to the Israeli electricity company.
The Palestinian Water Authority told Reuters that the decision suspended operations at a water desalination plant that produced 18,000 cubic metres of water per day for the population in central and southern areas of the Gaza Strip was disastrous.
"The decision is catastrophic; municipalities will now be obliged to let sewage water stream into the sea, which may result in environmental and health risks that go beyond the boundaries of Gaza," said Mohammad Thabet, a spokesperson for the Gaza power distribution plant.
The decision to cut aid last week piles pressure on a population in Gaza of more than 2 million who almost entirely depend on aid, warned the United Nations Palestinian refugees agency, UNRWA.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on Monday it is so critical it will see a return to the deepening hunger crisis, as the besieged Strip has teetered on the edge of famine.
Hamas describes the measure as "collective punishment" and insists it will not be pushed into making concessions at the discussions.
A fragile US, Qatar, and Egyptian-brokered ceasefire has been in place since 19 January. So far, Hamas has exchanged 33 Israeli hostages and five Thais for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
But the truce's initial 42-day stage has expired, and Hamas and Israel have been at loggerheads over the second and third phases which tackle the postwar governance of Gaza and the future of Hamas itself.
Underscoring the fragility of the ceasefire, an Israeli airstrike killed one Palestinian in the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip, medics said. There was no immediate Israeli comment.
Right now, Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, and the US are trying to salvage the ceasefire deal and hold talks with Hamas leaders in Doha, with Israeli negotiators arriving on Monday.
In Gaza, families said they were desperate.
'For example, a kilo of onions was 5 shekels, it became 10, a kilo of potatoes was 7 shekels, it became 25 shekels now, there is now no meat or chicken, and so on for the rest of the food items, so how can I provide food for ten members of my family?' Rahma asked in desperation.
'Everything is at a standstill: electricity, water, education, and all schools have been turned into shelters. My daughter, who is ten years old, only dreams of having a chicken. Her dreams have become limited to finding chicken, while she was supposed to dream of becoming a doctor or a scientist,' she added.
Kifah said: 'We are waiting for nothing. We are waiting for an unknown future, amidst threats of a return to war and displacement.'