Editor Hiyam Noir
Gaza, August 9, 2010-
Hospitals in the Gaza declare a state of emergency ,as the Gaza's main power plant was closed down Saturday night due to a shortage of industrial diesel fuel.
Power cuts have increased from eight hours to 12 hours per day and have severely affected the children hospitals, intermediate special care nurseries and maternity clinics, kidney departments, intensive care units, Gaza hemergency chief, Moweya Hassanein, said on Sunday.
Increase in the hours of power cutoff "would lead to a humanitarian crisis and a further deterioration of medical services," German news agency dpa quoted him as saying on Sunday.
The plant's closure, the third time this year, has caused chaos as hospitals had to use generators to maintain life-saving equipment.
The closure has also caused power cut to more than 700,000 residents in the Gaza city, Kan'an Obied, the chairman of the Hamas' energy authority, confirmed.
Hassanein also warned that if generators are not reactivated, an expected dozens of people would die.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority (PA) spokesman, Ghassan Khatib, said on Sunday that the PA is not responsible for the closure of Gaza's power plant, adding that the PA has paid 90 percent of it's power bill amounting to almost $12 million..
The Gaza Power Authority blamed the Ramallah government for the shutdown, saying it failed to make fuel payments to Israel.
In turn, Ramallah officials said the power authority had neglected to transfer cash to the PA to pay for the fuel.
Power cuts have increased from eight hours to 12 hours per day and have severely affected the children hospitals, intermediate special care nurseries and maternity clinics, kidney departments, intensive care units, Gaza hemergency chief, Moweya Hassanein, said on Sunday.
Increase in the hours of power cutoff "would lead to a humanitarian crisis and a further deterioration of medical services," German news agency dpa quoted him as saying on Sunday.
The plant's closure, the third time this year, has caused chaos as hospitals had to use generators to maintain life-saving equipment.
The closure has also caused power cut to more than 700,000 residents in the Gaza city, Kan'an Obied, the chairman of the Hamas' energy authority, confirmed.
Hassanein also warned that if generators are not reactivated, an expected dozens of people would die.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority (PA) spokesman, Ghassan Khatib, said on Sunday that the PA is not responsible for the closure of Gaza's power plant, adding that the PA has paid 90 percent of it's power bill amounting to almost $12 million..
The Gaza Power Authority blamed the Ramallah government for the shutdown, saying it failed to make fuel payments to Israel.
In turn, Ramallah officials said the power authority had neglected to transfer cash to the PA to pay for the fuel.
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