Officials in the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in Ramallah said Tuesday that Hamas is faking power outages in Gaza in order to win international support and turn the public against Israel and the PA. Fatah loyalists in Gaza have informed them that there is plenty of fuel and Gaza's power plant is able to function normally, they said.

Gaza is not lacking basic goods and medicines either, officials said, as such items are easily smuggled through the network of tunnels connecting southern Gaza to Egypt. The officials criticized Arab media for reporting Hamas' claims of shortages as true.