When Gaza's 2 million residents break their dawn-to-dusk fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, much of the territory is engulfed by darkness and homes have to rely on generators or batteries for the post-sundown family meals. Rolling power cuts, a mainstay of life in a decade of Hamas rule in the blockaded Gaza Strip, have never been worse.
Power is only on for four hours at a time, followed by 14 to 18 hours of outage – and the blackouts could grow even longer amid an escalating struggle for dominance between the Hamas movement and its West Bank-based rival, the Palestinian Authority of internationally backed President Mahmoud Abbas.
Gaza hasn't had full-time electricity in more than a decade, largely because of the international isolation of Hamas.
Since 2008, Israel and Hamas have fought three cross-border wars.
Since April, Gaza's power crisis worsened, in part because of Abbas' new strategy.
Hamas could not afford to buy new fuel, leaving Gaza with 10 power lines from Israel as the main source of electricity – about 30 percent of the territory's needs.
Gen. Yoav Mordechai, said last week that electricity in Gaza would have to be scaled back further.
Israel may be concerned the international community could blame it for further deterioration of conditions in Gaza.
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