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The European Union stopped paying for fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip's main power plant over concerns that Hamas would tax electricity to fund its government in the territory, EU officials said on Monday. "We have received information that Hamas is planning to introduce taxes on electricity bills and this will not allow us to continue paying for the fuel," a senior EU official said. He said the EU would be ready to resume the payment of the fuel once it received assurances that Hamas would not siphon off funds from electricity proceeds. "We need to make sure that our aid is exclusively for the benefit of the population," the EU official told Reuters. One of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' first decrees after Hamas seized control of Gaza in June was to exempt its 1.5 million residents from paying taxes, a move designed to keep Hamas from collecting any of the local revenues. The Gaza power plant shut down operations at midday on Sunday, causing widespread blackouts, after the EU halted its payment for fuel provided by Israeli company Dor Alon Energy. "We're ready to resume payments within hours once we have assurances that these taxes will not be introduced," EU spokeswoman Antonia Mochan said. She added the EU executive pays for 25-30 percent of the overall electricity supply to the Gaza Strip, worth $8.75 million a month. A senior official in the Hamas administration in Gaza said the EU's concerns were unfounded. "There is no new tax and we have no plans to introduce any new tax on electricity bills. We are ready to give all the assurances needed," the Hamas official said. Kanaan Abaid, deputy chairman of the Palestinian Energy Authority, said none of the revenues generated at the plant had reached Hamas or its administration in Gaza. "Nothing goes to Hamas," Abaid said. The shutdown was another blow to the long-suffering residents of the Gaza Strip, where the Islamic group Hamas has been governing, largely under international isolation, since June. The power plant already cut electricity to large swaths of Gaza last week after Israel closed a fuel crossing into the coastal territory, citing security concerns. Israel reopened the passage Sunday, but Dor Alon said the European Union had instructed it not to deliver new supplies because it would not guarantee payment. The EU said it had decided on Thursday that it would suspend the payments for security reasons, particularly due to tensions at the crossing points into Gaza.To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah...
