Gaza’s displaced families are struggling to keep the lights on
Hayat Yildiz reports in Mondoweiss on 26 October 2026:
The sun is slowly setting earlier as winter approaches in Gaza. When night falls, Aseel Ayesh’s tent in the Nuseirat refugee camp goes dark. Last week, her private electricity provider cut her off after she couldn’t pay a bill of over 180 shekels (around $59).
“I need to use the light all night, so I can prepare milk and dinner for my daughter,” said Ayesh, 24, who shares the tent with her husband and their infant daughter. Her husband, Wassim Mohammed Ayesh, said he got bit by a rat that snuck into the dark tent, which resulted in an infection.
With Gaza’s power grid in ruins, private generators are now the only source of electricity for most people in the Strip, and the price has soared. Generator power costs about 30 shekels (around $9.80) per kilowatt-hour, compared to three or four shekels before the war, according to providers. Generator owners connect subscribers to their power lines, with a meter to measure energy consumption, and bills are collected every week. Anyone who doesn’t pay in time is cut off.
Gaza never had enough electricity in the past. Before October 2023, the Strip had about 212 megawatts of power, less than half of what it needed to function. Most of the electricity was supplied from Israeli power lines, with the remainder coming from Gaza’s only power plant. At best, homes got electricity in alternating eight-hour shifts. Around 350 private generators were already operating to cover the gaps.
On the night of October 7, 2023, Israel cut the power lines and stopped the fuel that ran the power plant.