The new Syrian administration run by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the leaders of the successful rebellion and overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, is at least making a pretense of constructing a functioning government. What that government does, of course, is a separate conversation entirely. But simply as a case study of Islamist institution-building, one gets the impression that, unlike Hamas, HTS wants to be seen as giving a whit about the people who depend on them.
To take one example, from Aaron Zelin’s daily diary of the Syrian transition yesterday: “Syrian Minister of Electricity Omar al-Shuqruq: Six months of maintenance are required to fully restore the electricity network. Re-establishing electrical linkage with Jordan is one of the key solutions to securing power supply for Syria.”
Electricity has been one of the main challenges in Gaza, because Hamas refuses to do the one thing that would solve the problem almost overnight: stop its forever war against Israel. Now, it’s possible that HTS is planning to launch semiannual wars against Jordan and sabotage its own power supply, but I consider the possibility unlikely. That is, however, what Hamas does daily.
Here’s how the electricity in Gaza works. Israel provides 50 percent of the enclave’s power—and I do mean “provides.” Technically, Israel is selling electricity to Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority is supposed to pick up the tab. But they very often don’t, and certainly Hamas doesn’t pay, and every so often Israel threatens to cut off electricity for lack of payment—the debt is usually somewhere in the neighborhood of half a billion dollars. But Israel always backs down or accepts low partial payments.
How much does Hamas value that electricity? Well, it is not uncommon for their own rockets to hit the power lines and cut off parts of the grid. Usually, Israel just fixes the lines when Hamas destroys them. (Israel is terrible at doing genocide.) But on Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas knocked down more than half of their own power lines and Israel did not fix them; it had, if you remember, a few other priorities.
The other half of Gaza’s electricity is split into two main categories: 25 percent comes from Gaza’s diesel-run power plant and the other 25 percent comes from the sun. Gaza has a high concentration of solar cells, because there are lots and lots of roofs and lots of sun. Some of the solar power comes from Israeli companies, much of it from EU and UN projects (meaning, in part, the American taxpayer).
Some Gazans with solar-power systems sell electricity to their neighbors. Some who have their own diesel generators do the same. And the hospitals have been known to set up diesel generators in their bottom floors for public use.
What this means is that about a quarter of Gazan power doesn’t, in general, require the main grid. There’s a problem, however: in addition to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad rockets knocking down power lines, the fact that these groups operate from private homes means that the return fire from Israel knocks out solar roof panels. Hamas fires from civilian homes with the intent of getting those civilians killed, but doing so also kills the lights. Hamas is indescribably evil.
It should go without saying that Hamas does not have much trouble accessing electricity. Hundreds of miles of tunnels used only by Hamas are outfitted with electrical and communication wires. Which means the terror group simply built a second Gaza and sabotaged the first Gaza’s power grid—the one used by civilians.
Everyone could have power in Gaza, and it would not be particularly difficult, as Hamas has proved. In fact, the money spent on the Hamas tunnels just shows the wide range of services that everyone in Gaza could have access to, if Hamas wanted them to. For over 15 years, Hamas has governed the strip with an iron fist and built absolutely nothing for ordinary Gazans while destroying nearly everything for ordinary Gazans.
When one realizes all that Hamas is preventing, one should be furious at them—so long as one actually cares about Palestinian life.
