20 January, 2008

Lights Go Out In Gaza City

I've not been posting here that much lately, partly because I am lazy and partly because I have been having Internet problems. Now that I am back online, I have a packed bag of stuff I need to get around to posting here. In the meantime, here is a link to a BBC report on how the Gaza Strip's only power station has just shut down: Gaza City plunged into darkness. Senior officials in the plant report that it has run out of fuel, as a result of Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. Despite the blockade, however, Mr Shlomo Dror of the Israeli Defence Ministry asserts that the power station's organisers are closing it down for the laugh, as they have plenty of fuel stocks; in any case, Mr Dror feels that the denial of electricity to the densely populated Gaza Strip does not constitute a humanitarian crisis.

Palestinian militants from various factions have been firing rockets across into Israeli border areas for many months now. The Israeli military has been engaged in a largely ineffectual efforts to prevent this happening. The blockade of Gaza is one of several tactics the Israelis have been pursuing, thus far without any obvious success.

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