News / Palestine

Israel to cut electricity supplies to Palestinians

Friday, 30 January 2015 1:12 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 30 January 2015 3:01 AM ]

This file photo shows Palestinian refugees walking along a dark street during a power outage in the northern Gaza Strip.

An Israeli electricity company has decided to intermittently cut the power supplies to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

“Due to a mounting debt worth nearly 1.8 billion shekels (USD 459 million), we have decided that as of today, electrical supply will be cut” for an hour each morning and another hour each night, said an Israeli official with the energy company on Thursday.

The official, who was speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the measure, which would “not cause general power cuts, will remain in place until the Palestinian Authority begins to settle its debts.”

A private Palestinian firm, the Jerusalem District Electricity Company (JDECO), condemned the Israeli move, while acknowledging the failure in paying off the debt.

JDECO director Hisham Omari described the decision on the power cuts as “unfair”.

This comes as the Tel Aviv regime has also decided to freeze the tax revenues of the Palestinian Authority in retaliation for the Palestinian application to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) to sue Israel for the crimes it committed over the past months in the besieged Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed the application to join the ICC after the United Nations Security Council rejected a Palestinian proposal for statehood on December 30.

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