[Al Arabiya Latest] The sole power plant in the besieged Gaza Strip was shut down on Friday because fuel supplies ran out, with Palestinians and Israel blaming each other.
Shoot some rockets at them, by Gum. That'll get it turned back on pronto.
"The power plant shut down completely this morning as a result of a shortage of fuel caused by the Israeli siege," said Kanaan Obeid, assistant director of Gaza's electricity authority, referring to the Israeli blockade of Gaza since its 2007 takeover by the Islamist Hamas movement.
But Israel said the shut-down was caused by a rift over funding among the Palestinians, and that the Hamas rival, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, had stopped fuel purchases.
The industrial diesel needed to run the power plant -- which supplies about 25 percent of Gaza's energy -- comes through an Israeli-controlled fuel terminal, with Israel setting import quotas.
The imports have declined since November when the European Commission transferred responsibility for buying the fuel to the Palestinian Authority, after its aid program expired.
The Israeli army said the Palestinians had stopped buying fuel in recent days after Hamas failed to pay its share of the costs.
"There is no Israeli involvement; if they buy fuel we will let it in as we do on a daily basis," said Guy Inbar, a spokesman for the Israeli military liaison to Gaza.
Fuel supplies were particularly low in the past weeks, in part because there were no deliveries for two days over the recent Jewish Passover holiday.
Only 550,200 liters (145,294 gallons) were delivered this week, and 721,660 liters (190,642 gallons) the week before that, compared with the 3.5 million liters (924,602) a week normally needed to operate the plant, according to the OXFAM aid group.
Israel supplies about 70 percent of Gaza's power and Egypt provides five percent, with the remainder from the closed power plant.
Since March 3, the facility had been producing only 30 megawatts of electricity, or 38 percent of its full capacity.
This has led to blackouts of eight to 12 hours a day in parts of the impoverished territory, affecting the provision of essential services, including water supply, medical treatment and sewage disposal, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 
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