Palestinians Bomb Their Own Power Plant, Send Parts of Gaza into Darkness

Palestinian terrorists fired rockets at Israel, but instead destroyed critical civilian infrastructure that provides power to Gaza.

By: Max Gelber, United with Israel

Palestinian terrorists bombing Israeli civilian targets on Tuesday missed their target and instead hit a power station relaying power to the southern Strip.

The bombing destroyed infrastructure and rendered the plant inoperable, worsening Gaza residents’ already dire power situation.

The Hamas-controlled territory has suffered from chronic power outages for years.

The plant is situated in Israeli territory and is maintained by Israel.

An initial assessment of the damage indicates that it will takes several days to repair, Israel’s Electric Company (IEC) stated Tuesday evening.

Israeli Minister if Energy Yuval Steinitz ordered the IEC not to risk Israeli workers’welfare in an attempt to repair the damage and to wait until the hostilities cease.

“The terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip are not only targeting Israeli civilians, but are harming Gazans as well,” the IDF’s Coordination Unit for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) stated.

“How come the terrorist organizations in Gaza cut the electricity supply to hundreds of thousands of Gazans? Indiscriminate barrages of rockets fired today from Gaza by Islamic Jihad under the auspices of Hamas have hit infrastructure in Israel that supplies Gaza with electricity,” tweeted COGAT, the IDF unit responsible for implementing government policy in Judea and Samaria and vis-à-vis the Gaza Strip.

“It is time to wake up and understand that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are using you as hostages in their attempts to escalate the situation at your expense, when you are the ones who are harmed first and foremost,” COGAT commander Kamil Abu Rokon wrote in Arabic on his Facebook page.

Israel is, in fact, the only country that has been fighting to keep Gaza linked up to electricity. Egyptian power lines can deliver 30 megawatts, but have been shut down by Egyptian authorities for the past four months.

Palestinians’ History of Self-Destruction

The Palestinians have a sad history of harming themselves while attempting to harm Israel.

Palestinian terrorists acted in a similarly  self-destructive way during Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014 when they mistakenly bombed an Israeli power plant feeding Gaza.

More recently, Hamas-led Palestinian mobs in the last month twice assaulted and ransacked the Kerem Shalom Crossing and its fuel terminal , the only entry point for fuel to Gaza and the only lifeline that supplies basic goods to civilians in Gaza.

Israel has been working around the clock to keep the crossing open and functional, despite Hamas’ own attacks on it.

Thanks to these efforts, diesel fuel and gas tankers have recently resumed the transfer of critical energy supplies to the Gaza Strip, averting a certain fuel crisis.

“The most important thing to know is that these people who came to Kerem Shalom and demolished the crossing point did not go there by themselves. We know that Hamas sent them,” a senior Israeli security source told JNS, speaking earlier this month.