Gaza's sole power station is back up and working, the energy authority in the enclave said Thursday, after fuel supplies from Egypt helped to ease an energy crisis.
The announcement came after Egypt delivered a million liters of fuel to the station on Wednesday, three days after Israel began cutting electricity supplies to Gaza at the request of Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
The energy authority said two of the four generators at the power station had resumed operations and residents would now receive around six hours of mains power a day -- up from as little as two earlier in the week.
The power plant was shut down in April after running out of fuel following a row over taxes between Hamas, which rules Gaza, and the Ramallah-based PA government.
After a previous energy crisis a few months ago, Gaza received a supply of fuel from Turkey andQatar, but both supplies have since been spent.
Hamas violently seized control of Gaza from Abbas's Fatah movement in 2007 and multiple attempts at reconciliation have failed.
However, the PA had continued to pay Israel for some electricity delivered to Gaza until this month, with Abbas indicating they would no longer do so -- -- prompting the Israeli reductions.
Israel had been supplying 120 megawatts of electricity to Gaza a month, making up about a quarter of the territory's needs, but announced it would cease to do so this week.
Hamas official Basem Naim said on Thursday that the electricity supplied by the power plant was just enough to balance out the reduction.
He told AFP the Egyptian delivery was an "important step," obtained after a meeting between Egyptian leaders, Hamas and Abbas' great rival Mohammed Dahlan -- in exile in the United Arab Emirates after a dispute with Abbas.
"We must now find a definitive solution to the electricity crisis because its impact is catastrophic," said Naim.
AFP contributed to this report.