Palestinian leaders agree to resume fuel supplies to Gaza power station 

(MENAFN - Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) The Palestinian government in Gaza Strip, led by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, announced Tuesday it reached an agreement with the government in the West Bank, led by Prime Minister Salam Fayyadh, to pump fuel to the Gaza power generating station.

Addressing reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting of the Hamas government, Spokesman of the government Taher Al-Nono said: "We have reached a deal with the brothers in Ramallah to provide the power station with 500,000 liters of fuel a day." "The pumping of the supplies will get underway as of tomorrow, Wednesday, and their costs will be paid from the appropriations of the Gaza electricity districting company.

"The company has transferred nearly two million shekels (some USD 538,500) as an initial payment," he revealed, adding that today's cabinet meeting approved the deal.

Al-Nono expressed gratitude to "the brothers in Egypt" who brokered the deal successfully and hosted the signing ceremony in Cairo in the presence of Hamas chief delegate and Deputy Prime Minister Mohammad Awadh.
"The Egyptian officials stated readiness to facilitate the delivery of any humanitarian aid to Gaza including the fuel shipments," he noted.

Over the last two months the besieged enclave has been undergoing a stifling power crisis since its only electricity generating station ran out of fuel.
The deal approves the three-stage strategy, reached by Prime Minister Haniyeh and the Egyptian officials for upgrading the capacity of the station in the short-run from 17 to 22 megawatts and adding 8 megawatts in six weeks.

The medium-term stage (in the following 6-14 weeks) envisages increasing the capacity of Sheikh Zoyed station by 25 megawatts in collaboration with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the spokesman disclosed.

The long-run stage in the following 18-24 months aims to hook up the Gaza power grid to the regional eight-party power grid; the IDB agreed to finance this project, Al-Nono added.

Meanwhile, Ghassan Al-Khatib, director of the press center of Fayyadh's government, affirmed that his government will provide the Gaza power station with 415 liters of diesel fuel daily.

The Palestinian government in the West Bank will continue efforts to end the energy crisis in Gaza after ironing out the financial problems, he said in a statement distributed here.