GAZA: An already severe electricity crisis in the Gaza Strip has worsened due to the recent military flare-up between Palestinian armed groups and Israel, officials in the enclave said Thursday.
The exchange of fire on Tuesday damaged part of the Israeli electricity lines that supply power to the Gaza Strip, said Mohammed Thabet, spokesman for the Gaza electricity distribution company.
Israel’s electricity company says a Palestinian rocket fired from the Gaza Strip damaged three lines servicing the south of the blockaded enclave run by Islamist movement Hamas.
The Gaza Strip has for years suffered from electricity shortages that have badly affected its economy and the daily life of its two million residents.
Public mains had been recently providing some four hours of electricity followed by cuts of between 12 to 16 hours.
Following Tuesday’s hostilities, electricity is now cut for between 20 and 30 hours at a time, depending on the location, Thabet said.
“We have been forced to reduce distribution,” he said.
Gaza is now receiving some 85 megawatts instead of the 120 usually delivered by Israel, he said. Some 500 megawatts per day is required to power the strip.
Calm returned to the Gaza Strip and nearby Israeli communities on Wednesday a day after the exchange of fire that stretched into the night in the worst military flare-up since a 2014 war.
It began with a barrage of mortar fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel, resulting in a heavy Israeli response.
Israel said it targeted some 65 militant sites in the Gaza Strip. It also said around 100 rockets and mortars fired from Gaza either exploded in Israel or were intercepted by air defenses.
Three Israeli soldiers were wounded. No casualties were reported in Gaza.
Egypt was reportedly influential in calming the situation. Hamas said a cease-fire had been reached, but Israel denied it was part of any deal.
Gaza flare-up worsens electricity crisis for Palestinians
Gaza flare-up worsens electricity crisis for Palestinians
- An already severe electricity crisis in the Gaza Strip has worsened due to the recent military flare-up
- Gaza is now receiving some 85 megawatts instead of the 120 usually delivered by Israel
Iraqi army fully takes over key base following US withdrawal
BAGHDAD: US forces have fully withdrawn from an air base in western Iraq in implementation of an agreement with the Iraqi government, Iraqi officials said Saturday.
Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to wind down a US-led coalition fighting the Daesh group in Iraq by September 2025, with US forces departing bases where they had been stationed.
However, a small unit of US military advisers and support personnel remained. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani in October told journalists that the agreement originally stipulated a full pullout of US forces from the Ain Al-Asad air base in western Iraq by September. But “developments in Syria” since then required maintaining a “small unit” of between 250 and 350 advisers and security personnel at the base.
Now all US personnel have departed.
Iraqi Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah oversaw the assignment of tasks and duties to various military units at the base on Saturday following the withdrawal of US forces and the Iraqi Army’s full assumption of control over the base, the military said in a statement.
The statement added that Yarallah “instructed relevant authorities to intensify efforts, enhance joint work, and coordinate between all units stationed at the base, while making full use of its capabilities and strategic location.”
A Ministry of Defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly confirmed that all US forces had departed the base and had also removed all American equipment from it.
There was no statement from the US military on the withdrawal.
US forces have retained a presence in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq and in neighboring Syria.
The departure of US forces may strengthen the hand of the government in discussions around disarmament of non-state armed groups in the country, some of which have used the presence of US troops as justification for keeping their own weapons.
Al-Sudani said in a July interview with The Associated Press that once the coalition withdrawal is complete, “there will be no need or no justification for any group to carry weapons outside the scope of the state.”
