Qatar, the Palestinian Authority (PA), and an electric company based in Gaza have signed a deal in order to supply Israel’s natural gas to Gaza’s only power plant.
Mr. Mohammad al-Emadi, Qatar’s envoy to the Gaza Strip stated that “Doha had signed a memorandum containing a pledge to invest $60 million in laying the pipeline for the proposed project.”
The project, which is known as the Gas for Gaza initiative, intends to exchange the power plant’s diesel fuel for natural gas from Israel’s Leviathan gas field.
“Gas will travel from the field to facilities in Israel’s south before being transported to Gaza’s power plant through an extended pipeline, which will be financed by the European Union and Qatar,” according to the reports.
Gaza has suffered from a chronic electricity deficit for more than a decade. The coastal enclave has only one power plant, which runs on imported diesel fuel, and experiences daily blackouts of between eight and 12 hours.
As per the reports, Gaza’s power facility only produced about 12 hours of electricity per day as of February. However, the Gas for Gaza initiative is projected to double this output, and the shift away from more polluting fuels like diesel is expected to make power plants in the territory more environmentally friendly.
“The transition to natural gas enabled by the (Gas for Gaza) project will reduce Palestinian carbon emissions by 6 percent, making a valuable contribution to mitigating climate change,” the Office of the Quartet noted.
According to the reports, with Israel’s approval, Qatar since 2018 has periodically provided millions of dollars in cash to Gaza’s Hamas rulers to pay for fuel for the Strip’s power plant, fund infrastructure projects, and offer aid to tens of thousands of Gazan families.
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