In a BBC interview in Arabic, Major General Yoav Mordechai, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, said today, "Israel will have to cut the supply of electricity to the Gaza Strip. Unfortunately, Hamas collects NIS 100 million a month from the residents of the Gaza Strip in goods and from taxes paid by all the oppressed Palestinians in the Gaza Strip; it does not reach the Palestinian Authority (PA). The reason is that Hamas prefers to use the money for digging tunnels, and its organization, and the people get only what is left over from that."
Asked by the interviewer about power transmission from Israel to the Gaza Strip, Mordechai explained, "Israel today is the only one supplying electricity to the Gaza Strip. The power station there does not work, and the power lines from the south are also not transmitting electricity. 125 megawatts come from Israel. The Israeli government has decided to increase this by another 100 megawatts, but unfortunately, there are problems between Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the PA in Ramallah, which caused the PA to decide not to pay for the electricity."
Mordechai added, "This blockade is… if the electricity is going for tunnels and Fathi Hamad, a Hamas leader who has four wives, three homes, and electricity 24 hours a day, and two million Palestinians have electricity four hours a day. Does that make any sense? Those are Hamas's priorities with the people."
Mordechai commented extensively on the priorities of Hamas leaders, saying, "Hamas prefers its own interests - the interests of its commanders. Every leader has a generator with a fuse, and the people get only what is left over. We are not the obstacle; it is disputes between Hamas and the PA."
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on May 25, 2017
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