Israeli, Qatari, Palestinian Agreement to Resolve Electricity Crisis in Gaza

A Palestinian family uses firewood for heating in a refugee camp in Khan Yunis on Friday, as a cold wave hits the Gaza Strip (EPA)
A Palestinian family uses firewood for heating in a refugee camp in Khan Yunis on Friday, as a cold wave hits the Gaza Strip (EPA)
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Israeli, Qatari, Palestinian Agreement to Resolve Electricity Crisis in Gaza

A Palestinian family uses firewood for heating in a refugee camp in Khan Yunis on Friday, as a cold wave hits the Gaza Strip (EPA)
A Palestinian family uses firewood for heating in a refugee camp in Khan Yunis on Friday, as a cold wave hits the Gaza Strip (EPA)

The agreement reached among Delek company, the Qatari government, and others to install a gas supply system in Gaza Strip proves that Israel acknowledges Hamas as a partner.

Qatar and the Palestinian Authority (PA) will jointly purchase the gas from the Leviathan gas field.

Qatar will further fund the pipeline from the Israeli side, while the European Union (EU) will handle the costs of installing the pipeline from the borderline with Israel to the power station in the Strip.

The Israeli cabinet has approved the deal.

In further detail, Qatar and the PA pay $20 million for operating the power station that provides 180 megawatts. However, when it comes to gas, they will pay $15 million, generating 400 megawatts.

The gas from Israel will resolve the electricity crisis, bringing light to the whole Stirp.

Israel will not pay a single dollar from its pocket; in fact, it will get revenues from the Delek company taxes.

Prior to Israel’s approval, the cabinet deliberated on the matter and held consultations with Qatar, Egypt, and the EU.

Gazans hope this deal will bring closure to the distressing situation of getting only four hours of electricity per day.

Muhammad Thabet, director of public relations for the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company, said the implementation of strategic projects is needed to solve the electricity crisis in Gaza.

According to Thabet, the simplest answer would be to install a gas supply system in Gaza instead of high-cost diesel.

The gas pipeline would reduce operating costs by 15 percent of the overall cost, he added.



Tens of Thousands Go Hungry in Sudan after Trump Aid Freeze

(FILES) A woman collects food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organisation to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
(FILES) A woman collects food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organisation to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
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Tens of Thousands Go Hungry in Sudan after Trump Aid Freeze

(FILES) A woman collects food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organisation to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
(FILES) A woman collects food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organisation to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)

For the first time in nearly two years of war, soup kitchens in famine-stricken Sudan are being forced to turn people away, with US President Donald Trump's aid freeze gutting the life-saving schemes.

"People will die because of these decisions," said a Sudanese fundraising volunteer, who has been scrambling to find money to feed tens of thousands of people in the capital Khartoum.

"We have 40 kitchens across the country feeding between 30,000 to 35,000 people every day," another Sudanese volunteer told AFP, saying all of them had closed after Trump announced the freezing of foreign assistance and the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

"Women and children are being turned away and we can't promise them when we can feed them again," she said, requesting anonymity for fear that speaking publicly could jeopardize her work.

In much of Sudan, community-run soup kitchens are the only thing preventing mass starvation and many of them rely on US funding.

"The impact of the decision to withdraw funding in this abrupt manner has life-ending consequences," Javid Abdelmoneim, medical team leader at Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman, told AFP.

"This is yet another disaster for people in Sudan, already suffering the consequences of violence, hunger, a collapse of the healthcare system and a woeful international humanitarian response," he added.

Shortly after his inauguration last month, Trump froze US foreign aid and announced the dismantling of USAID.

His administration then issued waivers for "life-saving humanitarian assistance", but there have so far been no signs of this taking effect in Sudan and aid workers said their efforts were already crippled.

In what the United Nations has decried as a global "state of confusion", agencies on the ground in Sudan have been forced to halt essential food, shelter and health operations.

"All official communications have gone dark," another Sudanese aid coordinator told AFP, after USAID workers were put on leave this week.

The kitchens that have survived "are stretching resources and sharing as much as they can", he said.

"But there's just not enough to go around."

As one of the few independent organizations still standing in Sudan, MSF said it had been fielding requests from local responders to quickly step in.

However, "MSF can't fill the gap left by the US funding withdrawal," Abdelmoneim said.

The United States was the largest single donor to Sudan last year, contributing $800 million or around 46 percent of funds to the UN's response plan.

The UN estimates it currently has less than 6 percent of the humanitarian funding needed for Sudan in 2025.

Over 8 million people are on the brink of famine in Sudan, according to the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.

Famine is expected to spread to at least five more areas of Sudan by May, before the upcoming rainy season is likely to make access to food all the more difficult across the country.