RAMALALH — Six members of a family were killed early Thursday when their house caught fire in the neighborhood of Al-Shoja'iya to the east of Gaza City, Palestinian sources said. The Palestinian Civil Defense Department said the six members of the family were trapped in the house and that intense heat and thick smoke prevented the rescue teams from saving them. The department said the dead bodies were discovered after firefighters had put the blaze under control. The victims were taken to the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza Strip already dead. A hospital official identified the victims as the head of the family Hazim Mahmoud Dhair, 32, the mother Samar Naser Dhair, 30, their daughters Qamar, 4, and Farah, 3, as well as sons Nabil, 5, and Mahmoud, 6. Arson investigators said the fire was caused by unattended candles in the home. A power outage in the area prompted people to use candles for lighting. “This incident demonstrates the danger lighted candles can pose when left unattended,” investigators said. The Palestinian inquiry into the fire was ongoing. Last year, five children were burnt to death in two separate fires caused by candles in their homes in the central Gaza Strip. The Hamas-controlled enclave is facing a power crisis since Israel destroyed the sole power station in the area in a military operation in 2006 when Hamas militants captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Last October, the Power Distribution Company in Gaza Strip said that Israel occupation authorities prevented the maintenance of the major electric power transmission line. The company said Israeli authorities prevented its technical teams from maintaining the “sea line” which supplies wide areas in the Gaza governorate and northern cities with 12 megawatts of electricity. “Our teams were prevented from entering the border area to the east of Khan Younis to maintain the line after it faced power failure two weeks,” the company said. The company warned that the Israeli move “aggravates the power crisis in Gaza Strip and badly affects the humanitarian conditions, and the daily needs of residents in the area.” It said Gaza needs 350 megawatts of electricity. Israel provides 120MW, Egypt 22MW and the Gaza power plant has a maximum capacity of 120MW. With the deficit, power cuts have been a feature of daily life in Gaza for several years, but the recent crisis has increased the length and frequency of power outages, it said, adding that there is barely enough electricity to meet 30 percent of the Gaza's needs. The company said the power interruption is badly affecting other sectors – health, industry, education, and infrastructure. “Water cannot reach people's houses because there is no electricity to operate pumps. Sewage cannot be treated. All aspects of life is affected by this crisis,” it said. The Gaza power station was forced to shut down several times as a result of a fuel shortage. The Hamas government resorted to smuggling fuel after the stringent blockade imposed by Israel on the coastal enclave since in 2007. Despite the easing of the blockade in 2010 after an Israeli naval raid killed nine Turkish activists aboard the Mavi Marmara, a Gaza-bound ship, the Israeli-imported fuel remains in short supply that led to the smuggling of more expensive fuel from Egypt. After 350 of 800 of smuggling tunnels in the border of Egypt and Gaza were sealed off or destroyed, Gaza signed a deal with Cairo for the supply of fuel at international prices. However, the agreement has not been put into effect due to a dispute on where the fuel should enter Gaza. Egyptians say their only border-crossing with Gaza at Rafah is unsuitable for heavy goods and they want to bring fuel in via Israel's industrial crossing at Kerem Shalom. But this would require Gaza's power station and other businesses to pay import duties levied by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) and collected by Israel on its behalf.
