Gaza’s power grid has collapsed. Leaving families reliant on generators and private charging points, according to Al Jazeera. In Deir el-Balah. A displaced family member. Abdel Karim Salman. Begins each day by walking to a nearby charging point to power his and his wife’s phones, which serve as the only light in their tent at night. The war has shattered the region’s electricity supply, forcing residents to live in darkness and endure daily hardships.

Life in the Dark: A Daily Battle for Light

Abdel Karim. 28, a former civil engineer in northern Gaza, was displaced to Deir el-Balah a year and a half ago after his home was destroyed in the early days of Israel’s war on Gaza. He now lives with his wife and two children in a tent, where the only source of light is the torch function on their phones. “We sleep in darkness inside our tent,” he said. “When we can’t charge the phones. They turn off, and we are unable to recharge them.”.

Each day. Abdel Karim walks between 150 and 200 metres to a charging point, paying between two and four shekels ($0.65 to $1.30) per session, twice a day. That adds up to around 270 to 300 shekels ($86 to $95) per month for phone charging, a significant expense for displaced families with little income. “That means about eight to 10 shekels ($2.55 to $3.20) per day just for charging phones,” he explained.

For Abdel Karim, the lack of electricity extends beyond lighting. “There is no refrigerator. No washing machine … even baby milk cannot be stored for more than two or three hours,” he said, recalling his previous life in a home filled with electrical appliances. Now, the phone charging socket beside his bed has become a distant memory, and the absence of electronic entertainment has taken a psychological toll on his children.

Escalating Crisis: The Cost of Survival

With municipality-supplied electricity absent for two years, temporary alternatives like solar-powered lamps have emerged. However, these are unaffordable for most residents, having increased tenfold to about 300 shekels ($95) during the war. Solar energy systems are even more expensive, with a single panel costing $420 and an additional $1,200 for a battery and inverter. These items are also scarce due to Israeli restrictions on their entry into Gaza.

Private generator-based electricity systems have become a lifeline for many, but they are unaffordable for most and their services fluctuate due to irregular fuel supplies through the crossings. For Abdel Karim, who lost his job after the war began, the sums required to afford these systems are out of reach.

“Many days and nights we sleep in darkness inside our tent,” he said. “We hope God brings relief … because we are truly left without any solutions, as if we were abandoned in the desert.”

A Longstanding Problem Aggravated by War

Gaza’s electricity crisis is not new. Even before the war, the region faced daily rolling blackouts due to limited power imports from Israel and fuel shortages. Israel withdrew its illegal settlements from Gaza in 2005 but continued to control access into and out of the Palestinian enclave, repeatedly attacking it.

Most households received only a few hours of electricity per day, relying on a fragile mix of imported supply and Gaza’s one power plant. The situation worsened on October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel, prompting Israel to declare a “complete siege” on Gaza. Within days, Gaza’s power plant shut down due to fuel depletion, and by October 11, 2023, the territory entered a full electricity blackout, according to United Nations agencies.

With no fuel entering and transmission lines cut, homes, hospitals, water systems and communication networks lost reliable access to power, shifting to limited and increasingly unsustainable generator use. Since then, Gaza’s electricity infrastructure has continued to deteriorate due to both fuel shortages and widespread physical destruction of the grid.

During the time between 2025 and 2026, Gaza’s power system is widely described as effectively non-functional, with electricity access fragmented, inconsistent and largely dependent on emergency solutions rather than a stable grid.

Opportunity Amidst Crisis

The severe electricity crisis has created an indirect source of income for Jamal Musbah, 50, who runs a mobile phone charging station powered by solar energy and a generator line. Before the war, Jamal worked as a farmer and owned two agricultural plots on the eastern borders of Deir el-Balah. Today, they have been bulldozed and fall under Israeli control.

His charging station has instead become his main source of income, supporting his eight children. “I had an energy system consisting of six panels, batteries, and a device, which I used for pumping water and irrigating the remaining land around my house before the war,” Jamal said. After the war and the electricity blackout, he repurposed his solar system to provide basic phone charging services to residents, though this came with major challenges.

“The demand for charging was extremely high, and my batteries were exhausted within the first months, as electricity became very scarce at home,” he added. However, things worsened when a neighbouring house was targeted, destroying four of his six solar panels, significantly reducing his capacity and income.

At the beginning of the service, Jamal also offered food refrigeration services, but the lack of reliable power has made such services increasingly difficult to sustain. “It’s a struggle to keep up with the demand,” he said, highlighting the broader challenges faced by those trying to adapt to the crisis.