GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Egypt increased its energy supply to the Gaza Strip on Sunday, director of the Hamas-run energy authority told Ma'an, adding that more is required to solve the crisis.
"In light of the serious power shortage in the Gaza Strip, the additional five Megawatts have not resulted in a major improvement, and so further steps from Egypt would be necessary," Abu al-Amreen said on Monday.
Egypt increased its power supply to the Gaza Strip from 17 to 22 megawatts in the first stage of an agreement reached last Thursday with Gaza's energy authority.
The second stage will reportedly see the Islamic Development Bank finance a project to increase the capacity of Gaza's sole power-plant by 40 megawatts.
In the third part of the agreement, the Gazan electricity grid will be connected to Egypt's and the coastal enclave's sole power plant will be converted from diesel to gas, a statement said last week.
Stage two will take at least two more months to implement, Abu al-Amreen said on Monday.
Egypt says it has delivered emergency fuel to Gaza amid the crisis, but the promised deal did not appear to solve the problem of regular supplies.
The shorter-term requirement is the delivery of fuel into Gaza, but a disagreement on the route of the fuel still appeared to be pending agreement.
Egypt wants to stop the use of underground tunnels for delivery of Egyptian fuel purchased by Palestinian authorities, and has severely reduced supply through the tunnel network, prompting the current crisis.
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