Gaza City, Palestine — When 34-year-old baker Abrar Abdu pulled open the door of her oven after hours of careful preparation, she was left speechless. In her small, dimly-lit workshop, the only light came from her phone’s flashlight, which cast a shadow over 27 completely ruined cakes, destroyed by an unexpected power outage that left her aging oven malfunctioning.
Abdu is one of thousands of Palestinian small business owners navigating Gaza’s escalating total energy crisis, a disaster that has unfolded since Israel cut all power connections to the 2.2 million-person enclave at the start of its military campaign in 2023. The territory’s only power plant ceased operations on October 11 that year, after running out of fuel under a strict Israeli blockade on energy imports. Today, Gaza remains trapped in near-total darkness, with most residents relying on expensive, overstretched private generators or limited, costly solar infrastructure just to access basic power.
For Abdu, the latest power failure was a devastating blow that wiped out months of slow progress toward rebuilding her small cake shop after the war. She was forced to issue apologies to waiting customers, refund all orders, and absorb the full cost of spoiled ingredients, a loss she says has pushed her business to the edge of collapse. “I have incurred devastating financial losses due to the chronic instability of the electricity generators,” Abdu told Middle East Eye in an interview, adding that the crisis threatens not just her own livelihood, but the incomes of her small team of employees.
Even after the October 2025 ceasefire agreement, Israeli restrictions on fuel and critical equipment imports remain fully in place, deepening the humanitarian crisis and derailing fragile efforts to rebuild civilian life. Abdu explained that the dependence on overpriced commercial generators has created a constant cycle of financial stress: at one point, the business was forced to halt production for nine straight days due to repeated generator breakdowns. “This leaves us in a constant struggle against financial ruin, the loss of our clientele, and the burden of paying workers who support their families amid extreme poverty,” she said.
The crisis hits hardest at Gaza’s already crippled healthcare system, which has been left on the brink of collapse after repeated Israeli attacks and restrictions on medicine and medical equipment. Hospitals across the strip are almost entirely dependent on generators to keep critical care units running, but years of blockade and the intensification of the energy crisis have left this infrastructure failing. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Gaza’s Al-Shifa Medical Complex, said key generator components have worn down completely, and entire units have stopped operating due to constant mechanical strain, a lack of spare parts, and shortages of specialized maintenance oil.
Abu Salmiya described conditions inside the hospital as “tragic,” with frequent generator failures disrupting life-saving services including intensive care units, neonatal incubators, and dialysis centers. “These departments cannot afford even a minute of downtime. Consequently, we have been forced to shut down non-critical wards to keep life-saving sections operational,” he told MEE. Hundreds of patients waiting for scheduled surgeries now face indefinite delays, as hospital administrators are forced to prioritize only the most urgent, life-threatening cases. Fluctuating, unstable power has also permanently damaged thousands of pieces of sensitive medical equipment, which require a consistent energy flow to operate safely.
The Association of Generator and Alternative Energy Owners in Gaza has issued repeated urgent warnings in recent weeks over the growing shortages of mineral oil and spare parts, warning that the entire system is on the edge of total failure. “If the current situation persists, Gaza will sink into total darkness,” said Mustafa Abu Hassira, a senior official with the association. “If these generators continue to fail without the necessary oils and parts for maintenance, people will have neither water nor light in their homes. This will paralyze what remains of commercial and industrial activity.”
Abu Hassira noted that Gaza has endured an Israeli-led technical blockade for nearly 20 years, after Israeli forces bombed the main transformers of the territory’s only power plant and imposed a full blockade in 2006. For decades after that, residents relied on a patchwork of aging private generators, with access to just a few hours of power per day. “We have endured a technical blockade for 15 years, during which we were prevented from importing new generators. But the real collapse began when this war started,” he said. “Most of the vital generators in the strip have been destroyed, and operational infrastructure has been targeted, leaving us with a stark reality: no spare parts, no mineral oils, and no prospect of repair.”
With no access to proper maintenance supplies, generator owners have been forced to use makeshift alternatives including industrial diesel and even cooking oil, which speeds up engine wear and causes irreversible damage. Abu Hassira reported that of the 150 large generators that once provided basic power for public services across Gaza, roughly 60 have now stopped working entirely, and the number of failed units grows every day. Prices for the few remaining supplies of proper mineral oil have skyrocketed from 14 shekels per litre to 1,500 shekels per litre, putting it out of reach for most small operators. “We are not just facing an electricity crisis; we are facing total paralysis that will dismantle what remains of the local economy and cut off the basic necessities of life,” he added.
The energy crisis has now spilled into every corner of civilian life, even affecting transportation across the strip. With fuel and maintenance parts impossible to import, around 70 percent of Gaza’s vehicles were destroyed during the war, and the remaining fleet is at risk of total collapse, according to Anas Arafat, spokesperson for Gaza’s Ministry of Transport and Communications. Restrictions on spare parts, oil, and tyres have left the surviving vehicles vulnerable to permanent breakdown, Arafat explained, warning that the impact extends far beyond civilian travel: “Without them, ambulances cannot transport the wounded, water trucks cannot distribute supplies, and the generators powering hospitals and bakeries will fail. The wheels of life in Gaza may stop at any moment unless this crisis is resolved urgently.”
For Abdu, the crisis comes after she made a painful effort to rebuild her business following the war. Her bakery was forced to shut down when she and her family were displaced, and it was only after the 2025 ceasefire that they were able to return to Gaza City, repair the damaged workshop, and restart operations after four months of work. “We invested thousands to repair our ovens and refrigerators. After nearly four months, we managed to reopen despite the challenges,” she said.
Solar power, the only alternative to private generators, remains out of reach for most small business owners like Abdu, with a basic setup costing as much as 5,000 shekels ($1,400) — a sum most cannot afford. Unstable power has already damaged her ovens and refrigerators, adding more unexpected costs to an already strained budget. “We continue to bleed money due to power outages while paying more for raw materials than larger businesses,” she said. “Our suffering as we try to rebuild from the ashes remains invisible.”
