Main power line to Gaza down for 13 days

 Published Wednesday 30/11/2011 (updated) 01/12/2011 22:26

 

 

A view of the sole power plant in the Gaza Strip.
(MaanImages/Hatem Omar, File)

 

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israel is refusing to allow technicians to repair a main power line supplying the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for Gaza's electricity company said Wednesday.

Jamal Dardasawi said the line has been down for 13 days, exacerbating the electricity crisis in the coastal enclave.

The Israeli government has not allowed technicians from the Israel Electric Company or from Gaza to repair the line, which usually provided 12 Megawatts of power, Dardasawi said.

Gaza's power company has been applying an emergency distribution program, disconnecting the power grids for eight hours every day.

Dardasawi noted that the problem coincided with threats by Israel's foreign ministry to cut off water and electricity to Gaza if Fatah and Hamas formed a unity government.

Senior engineer Ahmad Abu al-Amrein said the shortage of power in the Gaza Strip had reached 37.3 percent.

The coastal enclave needs 300 Megawatts to meet residents' needs, but only 188 Megawatts are available, al-Amrein said.

Israel provided 108 Megawatts, Gaza's sole power plant generated 63 Megawatts and Egypt supplied 17 Megawatts, he explained.

 http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=440652

More Israeli Raids and Arrests near Hebron, Farmers Given 45 Days to Uproot Own Trees

30.11.11 - 22:02

PNN

On Wednesday, Israeli forces raided Beit Omar village, northwest of Hebron, and arrested three citizens. Israel has increased its encroachments into Beit Omar, often targeting children. Out of the 16 people arrested in the village, 13 were children.

 

Palestinians tend their land near the southern West Bank village of Artas (Lo Yuk Fai, PNN).

Eyewitnesses told the official Palestinian news wire Wafa that Israeli forces raided and searched houses in the al-Bayadeh and Wadi al-Sheikh neighborhoods. The houses belonged to 17-year-old Rashid Mohamad Issa Awad, 22-year-old Mahamad Mahmoud Mahamad Ikhlil, and 17-year old Yasser Faiz Mohamad Abu Fanous. The three individuals were detained and taken to Etzion military detention center.

The soldiers arrested Rafeq Abdul Razaq Jaradat  and Umar al-Sheikh Bhis from the villages of Sa'eer and Yatta, respectively.

Israeli forces also arrested 32-year-old Marwan Ahmed Sakharneh from Beit Ola village west of Hebron. The soldiers confiscated his tractor while he was plowing the lands in the Enjasat area, near the Israeli separation wall.

The towns and villages of Arabeh, Kufur Ra’e, al-Zawyeh, Anzeh, and Fahmeh were also raided but no arrests were recorded.

Israeli forces handed out demolition notices to the residents of Sourif, a village near Hebron. Activist Yousef Abu Maria told Wafa that the Israelis gave notices to Jamal Mohamad al-Qadi and Ibrahim Abdul Hadi Hamedat, informing them that their irrigation well and dozens of olive and almond trees would be destroyed. The well and trees are located in a 12-dunum (3 acre) plot of land near the separation wall. The soldiers gave al-Qadi and Hamedat 45 days to uproot their trees before bulldozers demolish them.

http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10926&Itemid=64

Israeli forces uproot 100 olives trees in Salfit

SALFIT, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) destroyed 100 olive trees in the Salfit village of Masha to make way for building a section of the separation wall, local sources said on Wednesday.

Farmer Mohammed Amer appealed for an end to the destruction of his olive trees, charging that the IOF soldiers were destroying the trees to expand the nearby Jewish settlement of Ornet.

He told the media that he was stunned when he arrived at the site to witness IOF bulldozers uprooting his trees, adding that most probably the act started since yesterday.

 Source and more at the Palestinian Information Center

IOF soldiers raid central Gaza amidst intensive shooting

GAZA, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) advanced a few hundred meters to the east of Breij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip on Wednesday amidst intensive shooting at residential quarters.

Local sources said that the soldiers in three army tanks and a number of armored vehicles escorted four bulldozers into the area as reconnaissance planes flew overhead.
  
Source and more at the Palestinian Information Center

IOF soldiers detain three Palestinians in Al-Khalil, steal money in Nablus

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed the village of Beit Ummar in Al-Khalil at dawn Wednesday and detained three Palestinian youths including two teenagers, local sources said.

They added that the soldiers thoroughly searched the houses of the three citizens before taking them away.
Meanwhile, IOF troops broke into a car rental company in Nablus city and stole a big amount of cash money in addition to computers, locals said.

They said that the soldiers blasted their way into Fattuh car rental company and stole 20000 dollars from its safe, business papers, and all computers in the facility.

Source and more at the Palestinian Information Center