75 PERCENT GAZA CITY WITHOUT ELECTRICITY AFTER ISRAELI STRIKES
Gaza, 15 Ramadan 1435/13 July 2014 (MINA) – Electricity was disconnected in major areas in Gaza City after heavy Israeli strikes on the Al-Shujaiyya neighborhood, the electric company said.
Public relations officer at the electricity company Jamal Al-Dredsawi said the two main electricity supply lines coming from Israel were damaged, Friday (11/7). Ma’an News Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
“Two out of three lines were damaged, which means 75 percent of the city is without electricity,” Al-Dresdsawi said.
He added that repairs would be delayed until Saturday because of the ongoing strikes on the area.
“The 25 percent that receives electricity will work on the usual intermittent schedule,”he explained.
The official added that the electricity line from Rafah to Cairo was damaged three times in the last two days, and it was repaired last time at 8 p.m., worked for 30 more minutes, and then was struck again.
In 1990, the Palestinian Authority began to take over the electricity company’s debts, but the Israeli control over the occupied Palestinian economy has led to recurrent financial crises.
The Israeli army said Saturday that it has hit 1,160 targets in the Gaza Strip since Monday, while the Palestinians fired a total of 689 rockets at Israeli cities.
“Overnight, the IDF [army] over 60 terror targets, making a total of 1,160 since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge,” the army wrote on its Twitter account, Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
The army said that Palestinian group Hamas fired over 689 rockets at Israeli cities in four days.
“That’s about one rocket every 10 minutes,” it added.
At least 121 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds injured since Monday when Israel launched a military offensive – dubbed “Operation Protective Edge” – with the stated aim of staunching rocket fire from Gaza.
It has continued to pound the territory with airstrikes, while ground troops remain massed on the Gaza Strip’s borders in advance of a possible ground assault.
Gaza-based resistance factions, meanwhile, have continued to fire rockets into Israel in response to the unrelenting airstrikes. (T/Nidiya/P04)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
