EU cuts dim Gaza's power supply

JERUSALEM — Tens of thousands of Gaza Strip residents were without electricity Monday after the European Union stopped paying to supply fuel to a Gaza power station serving more than a fourth of the coastal enclave.

It was not clear whether the European aid, cut off to deny the radical Hamas movement money, would be resumed or how long power outages in central Gaza would go on. A din of private generators dominated Gaza City's main market areas as merchants and residents sought to keep their lights on.

The blackouts, which began Friday night and grew to affect more than 500,000 residents by Sunday, spelled fresh anxiety for Gazans who have felt increasingly cut off since Hamas forcibly took control of the impoverished strip in June by routing the rival Fatah movement.

Israel has closed its borders with Gaza to shipments of all but humanitarian goods and has joined the United States and Europe in refusing contact with Hamas.

A spokeswoman for the European Commission said the fuel shipments, initially halted Thursday on security grounds, were to have resumed Sunday.

But European officials refused to lift the cutoff after learning Hamas planned to impose a tax on electricity produced by the Gaza power plant, said Alix de Mauny, spokeswoman for the commission in Jerusalem.

The European Union (EU) classifies Hamas as a terrorist organization and has funneled nearly $2.5 billion in assistance to the Palestinians this year through a special mechanism designed to skirt the Islamist group. Payments for the Gaza power station's fuel have totaled more than $70 million.

"We want to be sure that the money being given is fulfilling its purpose," De Mauny said.

Gaza's 1.4 million residents receive electricity from three sources: Israel, Egypt and what is produced by the plant in the central part of the coastal strip.

On Friday, the company that runs the Gaza plant shut off three of its four generators, citing fuel shortages after Israel stopped shipments last week. The plant halted fully Sunday when the EU notified Dor Alon, the Israeli fuel supplier, that it would not pay for a shipment.

In a statement, the Israeli company said it would renew deliveries "if and when the EU or any other trustworthy source will inform us it guarantees to pay for the fuels directed to the power station." Dor Alon said shipments into Gaza of gasoline and household cooking gas are unaffected by the EU action.

Hamas' military triumph has left Palestinians ruled by competing authorities in Gaza and the West Bank, where Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas named a caretaker government of technocrats led by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

Mohammed abu Ramadan, a 65-year-old supermarket owner, said the store coolers have stopped working because he cannot afford a generator.

"It's a miserable life; we have enough suffering," he said.

In other developments, Israeli forces killed six Hamas extremists in the central Gaza Strip late Monday. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the men, who were traveling in a car when attacked by ground forces, had fired mortars into southern Israel earlier.

Israel said Palestinian rebels have fired 40 mortars and crude Kassam rockets from Gaza in the past four days.