GAZA, (PIC)– Students in Gaza appealed to the international community to immediately intervene to save their school year that is threatened due to the continued power outages after the shutdown of Gaza’s power plant.

The operation of the Gaza power plant was totally stopped due to the lack of fuel and the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company (GEDCO) was forced to increase the hours of power outages which may last up to 18 hours daily.

GEDCO is forced to supply power to houses for only six hours daily which resulted in further deterioration in humanitarian conditions of the Gaza Strip’s population.

Nearly eighty students from Gaza schools, in addition to a number of teachers, participated on Thursday evening in a sit-in organized to reveal their suffering in light of the siege and the continued power cuts. The Islamic bloc organized the event near Fakhoura school in Jabaliya refugee camp to the north of Gaza.

The students called on the internatinal community to help them and put an end to the power crisis.

Hani Moqbel, head of the Islamic bloc in Palestine, stressed in a speech he delivered during the event that the Israeli occupation attempts to persecute the people will not stop the educational process in Gaza.

The aggravation of electricity crisis has coincided with the mid-term exams that started about a week ago in the schools and universities of the Gaza Strip. The majority of governmental schools is still without electricity and cannot provide the students with alternatives.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) expressed deep concern over the deterioration of humanitarian conditions of the civilian population due to the aggravation of the electricity crisis in the Gaza Strip.

PCHR is deeply concerned that the current crisis may impact the access of 1.7 million Palestinians to vital services, including the supply of drinking water, and that this crisis may result in the suspension of work in some vital sectors, such as health, sanitation and education.

The center said in a statement: “Educational facilities in universities and educational institutions are suffering serious disorder, which led to the inactivity of many educational laboratories and the postponement of some educational assignments due to electricity shortage and lack of alternative power sources.”