Adel Hana/Associated Press
The mother of Hazem Dhair, who died along with his
wife and four children in a fire. Workers cut off power to the building,
reportedly for a tenant’s failure to pay.
The fire was the latest in a series of house fires, most started by
candles, in power-starved Gaza, and it set off bitter finger-pointing.
Adel Hana/Associated Press
The mother of Hazem Dhair, who
died along with his wife and four children in a fire. Workers cut off
power to the building, reportedly for a tenant’s failure to pay.
By FARES AKRAM
Published: January 31, 2013
GAZA — Twelve hours after Palestinian
electricity workers cut off power to a building because of nonpayment
by one of the tenants, it went up in flames, killing a married couple
and their four children, ages 3 months to 7 years.
Related
-
U.N. Sees Bleak Outlook for Gaza Unless Services Are Improved (August 29, 2012)
It was the latest in a series of house fires, most started by candles,
in power-starved Gaza, and it set off bitter finger-pointing.
As the family’s funeral procession passed by the headquarters of the
Gaza Electricity Distribution Company, angry mourners shattered the
windows and windshield of a vehicle outside the building and made their
way inside, smashing computers and a glass top on a counter. Hamas
police soon turned the mourners away. Al Dameer Association for Human Rights,
which is based in Gaza, issued a statement calling on Gazan authorities
to investigate why the company had cut the electricity to the family’s
house.
The power in Gaza regularly goes out for six to eight hours. The
territory’s lone power plant often does not produce at full capacity,
and diesel supplies from Egypt have been disrupted. Israel supplies most
of Gaza’s power, with about 20 percent coming from Egypt.
Last year, a house fire in central Gaza killed three children in April; another in September killed a fourth child.
The Hamas government focused on Israel, blaming it for constricting
Gaza’s electricity supply, noting that Israel bombed the Gaza power
station in 2006 and has long blockaded the territory from receiving many
supplies, including fuel needed to run the station. The Interior
Ministry of Hamas initially attributed the latest fire to a short
circuit caused by a heater, but later said in a statement that it was
started by a candle.
But relatives of the family blamed the electricity company, not Israel.
Visiting the ruins of the house, Faiza Dhair, a sister of the man who
died, pointed to the heater, which was hung on the wall outside the
house’s most charred area, the bedroom.
“The death of my brother’s family has nothing to do with the siege,” she
said, focusing her fury on the power company. She added, “If they did
not cut the electricity cable to our house, my brother would not have
died.”
Another sister, Siham Dhair, 18, said that her brother was employed by
the Palestinian Authority and received a fixed salary of 1,300 shekels a
month, or about $350. She said she did not understand why his
electricity bill would not have been paid, because normally an automatic
deduction from his salary took care of the expense.
She also noted that her brother, Hazem Dhair, 32, was an Islamic
activist. “My mother was always afraid that Hazem would be killed during
his jihadi work by Israel,” she said, “but today he died out of a
candle that he was forced to light.”
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