JERUSALEM, Wednesday, December 11, 2019 (WAFA) – The Jerusalem District Electricity Company (JDECO), a private Palestinian shareholding power distributing company, announced today that forced Israeli blackouts will resume in its concession areas starting Sunday.

It said in a statement that the Israeli Electricity Company (IEC) is going to shut power to most of the Ramallah area households, businesses, educational facilities, banks, hospitals, water pumping stations, and many more for three hours on Sunday starting at 2:00 p.m. local time.

Two days later, another JDECO concession area, Bethlehem, which is hosting Christmas celebrations at the site of Jesus Christ’s birth, is going to face a similar 3-hour blackout.

JDECO’s two other concession areas, occupied East Jerusalem and Jericho, are going to also have their own blackouts at different dates.

IEC has already cut power to the same areas last month and the month before for two hours at different times, but then decided to raise the power cuts to three hours and may be more in the future in order to pressure JDECO to pay its outstanding debt for the electric power it purchases from the Israeli company, which exceeds $250 million.

JDECO, on the other hand, says this measure by IEC, which is endorsed by the Israeli government, is part of the Israeli collective punishment policy against the Palestinian people under its occupation.

M.K.