GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Scores of Palestinians demonstrated outside of the Palestinian Legislative Council building in Gaza City on Monday to protest the ongoing power crisis which recently took a turn for the worse after the Palestinian Authority (PA) revoked a tax exemption on fuel in Gaza.

Gaza’s power plant shut down completely on April 8 after exhausting its fuel reserves, leading to blackouts for up to 20 hours a day, compared to 12 hours a day previously, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement on Monday.

The demonstration, which brought together some 150 people, was organized by the left-wing Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).

Senior DFLP leader Talal Abu Tharifa read a memo which he said the DFLP would send to Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. In the memo, he urged Hamdallah to “justly treat the Gaza Strip, which has fallen victim to internal Palestinian disputes.”

“We are surprised by the Palestinian government’s decisions, which adds to the suffering of our people in the Gaza Strip who have gone through disasters caused by three Israeli military offensives,” Abu Tharifa added.

While stressing the importance of consumers paying their electricity bills, Abu Tharifa added that the PA “should increase power supplies before you ask them to pay the bills.”

Even at full capacity, the Egyptian and Israeli electricity grids, together with Gaza’s sole power plant, fail to cover the Gaza Strip’s energy needs.

They provide only 230 MW of electricity, while Gaza-based think tank Pal-Think has estimated Gaza’s needs to fall between 350 and 450 MW.

The coastal enclave has seen a number of large demonstrations protesting the energy crisis in the past, with Gazans calling for the resignation of Hamdallah’s government.

Gaza’s power plant has not run at full capacity in years, with Israel’s crippling blockade severely limiting fuel imports into the coastal enclave.

War has also had taken its toll, as Israeli forces targeted the power plant during a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip in 2014, completely knocking it out of commission.

The UN has warned that the Gaza Strip could become uninhabitable for residents by 2020, pointing to the devastation of war and nearly a decade of Israel’s blockade.

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