Gaza will ‘fall into darkness’ if no fuel soon

The Gaza Energy Authority announced on Thursday that if fuel doesn't enter the coastal enclave within 72 hours the Strip will face a severe electricity crisis. “In less than 72 hours if we don’t receive fuel, Gaza will fall into darkness and disability in all aspects of life,” Kanan Obeid, president of the Energy Authority, said. The Hamas run authority has called on Arab and Islamic countries to intervene to prevent a crisis. Since 2007, Israel's closure of the Gaza Strip has led to severely restricted fuel supply, causing power shortages. In 2011, the restricted Israeli supply was supplemented by fuel smuggled in through the underground tunnels connecting Egypt and Gaza, used in electricity generation for the first time after a local engineer developed a refining process. The engineer was later allegedly abducted by Israeli intelligence agents during a trip to the Ukraine. Gaza's energy sector is crippled by Israel's ban on importing materials for locally-implemented construction, leaving power stations unable to function without crucial supplies and paralyzed after severe damage inflicted by Israel's 2009 war on the coastal strip.