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West Bank's electricity to be shut down by Israel for the second time this week
The Israel Electric Corporation cut power flow to the West Bank cities of Nablus and Jenin for about 30 minutes on Wednesday morning, for the second time in two days, in response to the Palestinian Authority’s unpaid bills.
The Palestinians were notified in the early afternoon that the electrical flow would be restricted at 2 P.M. Israel’s defense ministry also said it had been surprised to learn of the move and said it opposed the decision.
The company said it was forced to cut electricity from time to time to minimize future debt.
The company said Monday following the first blackout that it was owed large sums of money by Northern Electric, a Palestinian firm which buys electricity from Israel and distributes it to towns and villages in the northern West Bank. That power outage lasted approximately 45 minutes.
The Israeli electrical company said in a statement the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian companies owed it 1.9 billion shekels ($487 million) and that it had sent many notices warning of the pending step.
“The Israel Electric Corp. is committed to operate under the law to reduce the debt,” the electric company said in a statement. “The Electric Corp. is compelled to act so as not to increase the debt beyond 2 billion shekels.”
Source: www.haaretz.com