Gaza's fuel authority on Wednesday said the shipment of fuel to the impoverished strip had been renewed. The fuel cutoff had left at least half of Gaza's 1.4 million residents in the dark and without fans as temperatures soared to 34 degrees (95 degrees F). Without enough power to keep pumps going, authorities began rationing water. Shops in Gaza City's main market set up noisy, smoke-spewing generators in the streets to run their lights. Families ran to the grocery stores every few hours to buy food because they couldn't refrigerate. And streets were jammed with cars and irritable motorists because traffic lights were out, the Associated Press reported. The electricity outage initially began Friday after Israel closed a fuel crossing with Gaza, citing security threats. Although Israel reopened the crossing on Sunday, the fuel shipments were not renewed because the EU notified the Israeli fuel vendor that it would not pay for them. On Tuesday, the EU announced it would resume fuel payments to the power plant, but that the plant must be audited. The Israeli fuel vendor, Dor Alon, was not immediately available for comment on the renewal of fuel supplies to Gaza.
