A funding dispute between the European Union and Hamas led to power cuts in the Gaza Strip.
Around a quarter of Gaza’s 1.5 million Palestinians have gone without electricity this week after the European Union suspended aid payouts, saying it had evidence the Hamas administration was using some of the money for non-humanitarian purposes – including, potentially, a build-up of its military arsenal.
Hamas denied the charge, and accused the West Bank administration of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of fabricating evidence against it.
Hamas, which has run Gaza since forcing out Abbas’s Fatah faction in June, offered Tuesday to provide guarantees that all foreign donor money goes to its stated aims. The European Union had no immediate response.
