▪ The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is aiming to produce information materials to highlight the impact of the electricity problem on the life of people in the Gaza Strip.
▪ The Red Cross will work to extrapolate people's opinions on the problem through questions addressed to the beneficiary group of Red Cross projects, as well as to a random group of society with a random sample of 300 people in the Gaza Strip of different ages.
▪ The objective is to highlight the humanitarian challenges and needs posed by the electricity crisis for the Gaza strip.
▪ Present these information material to the international community that highlight the daily challenges faced by the population in the Gaza strip in the light of the electricity crisis.
• 86.2% of the sample reported that they received electricity for (6–8) hours daily on average during the year.
• 80.1% of the sample reported that the lowest amount of electricity they received in one day last year was less than 4 hours.
• 26.8% of the sample reported that they could not access any alternative power source either at high or low capacity, in which 91.4% of them stated they were unable to pay for additional energy, while 8.6% said they could not access any alternative power source because they initially refused to pay for additional energy costs.
• 57.1% who rely on alternative energy sources cannot access alternative high-capacity energy sources sufficient to meet their needs and work.
• 22.0% of those who rely on alternative energy sources have access to commercial generators available in residential neighborhoods as a highpower alternative energy source, compared to only 8.7% who rely on solar systems as an alternative energy source.
• Village residents can have access to a lower alternative energy source than other residents of cities and camps.
• Residents of Gaza governorate have more access to alternative energy sources, followed by northern Gaza governorate, central governorate, Rafah governorate, and finally Khan Younis governorate which have less access to alternative energy sources.
• About 77.0% of the sample think that the most important problems due to lack of electricity are "their inability to complete electricity-based household work" and "inability to store food and vegetables in the refrigerator for fear of damage".
While 57.0% of the sample believes that the most important problems due to lack of electricity are "failure of electrical appliances in case of a frequent and sudden power outage", and "the heat suffering during the summer because of the inability to cool the environment".
• Other energy sources that citizens have access to have contributed to a limited extent in reducing or limiting some of the problems caused by the lack of electricity provided by the public network.
• 94.0% of citizens believe that the lack of electricity is affecting their mental health.
• 82.0% of citizens are unable to refrigerate food due to the lack of electricity provided by the public network.
• The more hours of electricity citizens get from the public network, the more they can refrigerate and store food.
• The higher the power of alternative energy sources available, the more the refrigerator and coolers are used to refrigerate food by people.
• One of the adjustment mechanisms used in case food is unable to be refrigerated is to go to the market every day to buy the daily needs of food and drink as indicated by 51.2% of the sample, while people are not buying foods that need refrigeration for fear of corruption was indicated by 40.3%. Moreover, 8.5% use another person’s refrigerator to refrigerate their food as an adaptive mechanism.
• When the power is restored, citizens take several actions as their first action; almost 53.0% reported that they operate the necessary household appliances such as (fan - air-conditioning - fridge - washing machine - iron - electric oven - TV, etc..). However, 24.2% said they are operating the water pump to fill the tanks as the first act on the return of electricity, while 15.3% charge home batteries for recharging.
• The lack of electricity has a major impact on the daily work of citizens, such as changing the daily routine of life, according to 37.9% of citizens, changing the working hours, as 35.9% of citizens have said, and losing the source of livelihood to rely on electricity, according to 15.9%. The reduction in working hours, therefore, is the decrease in workers' wages, as 10.3% of citizens said.
• The lack of electricity has had a significant negative impact on the lives of citizens in the Gaza Strip, which has contributed to the worsening of the difficult humanitarian situation and the deteriorating economic conditions caused by the blockade; Such as damage to electrical equipment, increased physical cost of life, poor health of some patients, and poor mental condition.
• About 99.42% of citizens believe that availing of 24-hour power can change their lives.