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Wasfi Al-Nider sits motionless on a couch looking at a small screen. Whenever it goes blank, it is the sign of yet another power cut hitting Gaza. But while most blackouts deprive many fellow Gazans of working on computers or watching TV, the screen the 63-year-old is looking at is connected to his blood and a kidney dialysis machine.

 

"Whenever there is a blackout, I'm in Allah's hands," Wasfi says. "The machine just stops, blood stops circulating, I just cry."

Gaza has witnessed a steep increase in blackouts since the European Commission handed over responsibility for buying industrial fuel needed to operate Gaza's only power plant to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah late last year. The entire coastal strip is now plunged in total darkness for up to 12 hours a day, disrupting the daily lives of Palestinians who are already living with hardships caused by the Israeli blockade.