Feature: Gazans struggle to live without power as war leaves grid in ruins

GAZA, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Under the scorching sun near the ruins of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, 22-year-old Shorouq Abu Naji washes her children's clothes by hand outside a tent. Her fingers are red and swollen from scrubbing.

"We can no longer use washing machines because of the long power cuts," she said. "My hands hurt all the time. Sometimes I cry from the pain."

For Abu Naji and her three children, electricity has become a distant memory. "For more than two years, we haven't seen electricity in our area," she said. "Everything we do now depends on our physical effort."

Her eldest son hands her a paper slip marked "15" -- a token for retrieving a mobile phone after charging it at a solar-powered station. "If we lose this paper, we can't get our phone back," she said, adding that the phone serves as both a crucial communication tool and an important light source at night.

At night, her husband lights a small fire outside. "Before sleeping, he puts it out so the tent won't catch fire," she said. "In the tent, we have to rely on the flashlight of the phone."

Across Gaza, makeshift tents remain dark after sunset, lit only by candles, small fires, or the dim glow of phone screens.

Israel launched a large-scale military operation in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, after a Hamas attack on southern Israel killed about 1,200 people and saw around 250 others taken hostage. Israel soon imposed "a complete siege" on the enclave, cutting off water, electricity, and fuel.

Since then, most of Gaza's 2 million residents have lived with little or no power.

In Khan Younis, Shaker Murtaja, 42, a father of four whose tailoring shop was leveled by an airstrike, speaks of the pervasive fear. "Who can live without electricity for two years?" he asked, a question heavy with disbelief. "We are human beings and have the right to live like others."

He remembers a time before the conflict when his children watched television and studied under bright lights for a few hours each day. "Now they fear the dark. We heat water with fire, and every evening feels like a struggle."

The power shortage has further weakened Gaza's already devastated economy. In Deir al-Balah, 53-year-old factory owner Samer Afana reopened part of his sweets factory using generators powered by fuel made from melted plastic.

"Before, generators were used for short outages," he said. "Now we depend on them completely, and our expenses have tripled."

Afana said he has lost about 1.5 million U.S. dollars due to the war. "The destruction of Gaza's power grid has doubled companies' losses and destroyed thousands of jobs," he said.

According to the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company, the enclave has lost about 1.2 billion kilowatt-hours of power since the war began. Damage to the electricity infrastructure exceeds 728 million dollars, the company said, with thousands of networks, transformers, and meters destroyed.

"Now, the power plant is almost completely out of service," company spokesman Mohammed Thabet said.

With no clear timeline for repair, most Gazans continue to live without electricity, relying on candles, solar lamps, and improvised fuel sources. ■