Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad’s infrastructure development took another step forward today in the Gaza Strip to increase supplies of diesel to territory. The Gaza Electricity Distribution Company transferred $2 million to a Ramallah power company, which pays for 320,000 liters of diesel per day for the Strip.
The fuel will help support Gaza’s electricity plant, which shut down this week for a few days due to lack of resources, leading to power outages and hospitals declaring a state of emergency.
While the fuel will not directly build infrastructure, the agreement provides more collaboration between the Fatah-controlled West Bank and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Separately, Israel also supplies Gaza with energy, and Hamas often launches rockets at that power plant because it is situated near Israeli populations and supplies electricity to residents in the area.
Fayyad has long attempted to develop infrastructure that could lead to unilaterally declaring statehood, and improving the power supply capabilities could aid that effort.
