Gaza City, December 21 (RHC)-- The Gaza Electricity Distribution Company (GEDCO) has criticized the Israeli regime over stalling repairs on one of the main power lines in the impoverished Palestinian coastal enclave, arguing that the holdup has exacerbated the already dire living conditions in the besieged territory. 

The GEDCO announced that Israeli officials had pushed off restoring Baghdad power line, which has been damaged for four days, calling on Palestinian authorities to compel Israel to take proper measures and repair the damaged line as soon as possible. 

The electricity distribution company said poor maintenance of many Israeli transmission lines had worsened power crisis in Gaza, and severely impacted electricity distribution schedule there. 

Egyptian and Israeli electricity grids, together with Gaza's sole power plant, fail to cover the Palestinian enclave's energy needs, and its inhabitants have access to electricity for eight hours each day. 

On May 6, three siblings lost their lives and three others were seriously burned in a house fire caused by candles that the family had lit during a power cut.  Palestinian medical sources identified the deceased as three-year-old Yusra Muhammad Abu Hindi, two-year-old Rahaf Muhammad Abu Hindi, and two-month-old Nasser Muhammad Abu Hindi. 

Israel launched its latest war on Gaza in early July 2014. The 50-day military aggression, which ended on August 26, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children. Over 11,100 others, including 3,374 children, 2,088 women and 410 elderly people, were also wounded in the war. 

Since June 2007, Gaza has been under an Israeli siege that has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty among Palestinians.