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Hamas PM visits Egypt to resolve power crisis: spokesman

21 February 2012 03:32 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The prime minister of deposed Hamas government Ismail Haneya traveled to Egypt Monday to look for solutions to Gaza’s electricity crisis, a spokesman said, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Haneya will talk with Egyptian officials about the lack of fuel in the Gaza Strip, aspects of joint cooperation and the Palestinian reconciliation, said Taher Al-Nounou, a spokesman for Gaza’s Hamas government.

Haneya’s visit came a week after Gaza’s only power plant stopped generating electricity due to a lack of diesel, leaving 1. 6 million residents here dependent on electricity coming from Israel and Egypt that can only cover one-third of the needed amount of megawatts.

Until last year, industrial diesel to the power plant came from Israel, but irregular supplies were insufficient and Hamas authorities started to allow the plant to run on diesel smuggled from Egypt through underground tunnels.

Fuel shortage in Egypt and particularly in North Sinai, where Gaza gets its share from, disrupted supplies to Gaza.

Meanwhile, sources said another undeclared reason for Haneya’s visit is to participate in a meeting for Hamas leadership, scheduled for this week in Cairo, to discuss a unity pact signed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and the Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the Qatari capital of Doha earlier this month.

The Doha agreement authorizes Abbas to from an interim government ruling the West Bank and Gaza until elections.

Several Gaza-based Hamas leaders voiced opposition to the agreement, saying that Mashaal did not consult with them before he signed the agreement with Abbas.