Gaza Strip's fuel authority on Wednesday confirmed the shipment of fuel had been renewed. The European Union suspended fuel deliveries to a major Gaza power plant after it started to suspect the Strip's Hamas rulers were pocketing electricity revenues, the AP reported.
On their part, Hamas officials denied skimming money, saying the allegations were cooked up by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' government in the West Bank. The fuel cutoff left at least half of Gaza Strip's 1.4 million residents in the dark and without fans as temperatures soared to 34 degrees. Without enough power to keep pumps going, authorities began rationing water.
The electricity outage initially started Friday after Israel closed a fuel crossing with the Strip, citing security threats. Although Israel reopened the crossing on Sunday, the fuel shipments were not renewed because the EU notified the Israeli fuel vendor that it would not pay for them. On Tuesday, the EU declared it would resume fuel payments to the power plant, but that the plant must be audited.
