A delegation from Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Ministry is currently visiting the Gaza Strip to discuss ways to meet the coastal enclave’s electricity needs, the Anadolu Agency reported yesterday.

The visit comes two weeks after Ankara and Tel-Aviv agreed to normalise relations following a six-year hiatus.

According to ministry sources, members of the delegation, which arrived in the Strip on Sunday evening, will meet both Israeli and Palestinian officials to discuss how to resolve Gaza’s energy crisis.

Gaza continues to suffer from a severe energy crisis that has forced the local authorities to adopt a rotation system, cutting power in certain parts of the Strip in order to supply electricity to other areas.

This is due to shortfalls in the amounts of electricity produced by Gaza’s sole power plant, coupled with the fact that electricity supplied by Israel and Egypt is insufficient to meet the Strip’s energy demand.

Following its visit, the Turkish delegation is expected to provide a report on its findings to Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak.

Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has been under a strict Israeli and internationally backed siege that has deprived the enclave’s roughly 1.9 million inhabitants of their most basic needs, especially food, fuel, medicine and construction supplies.

Source: middleeastmonitor.com