An aerial view of the Gaza Strip. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The Palestinian Authority said on Wednesday it asked Israel to fully restore Israeli electricity flows to the Gaza Strip, a move that could nearly double the daily connection time in an enclave suffering severe power shortages.

There was no immediate word from Israel whether it would comply at a time when it says the Islamist Hamas group, which controls Gaza, bears overall responsibility for recent cross-border rocket attacks launched by smaller terrorist factions.

In a statement, Hussein Al-Sheikh, Palestinian minister of civil affairs, said the Palestinian Authority (PA) would again guarantee payment of Gaza’s Israeli electricity bill and ask Israel to restore the 50 megawatts of power, out of a total 120 megawatts, that it had supplied to the area.

A statement issued by PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said the request was to “alleviate the suffering of the people of Gaza and to improve living conditions.”

Gaza’s two million residents now receive only three to four hours of electricity a day, with schools, factories, hospitals and households affected. A Gaza economist said restoration of power from Israel, the enclave’s main electricity supplier, could raise that figure to six hours. Gaza’s sole power station generates only a small amount of electricity.

In April, PA President Mahmoud Abbas announced he was cancelling the guarantee, part of a bid to press Hamas to loosen its hold over the enclave, a decade after the Islamist movement seized the territory from forces loyal to him.

Prompted partly by Abbas’ sanctions and fears of financial and political isolation, Hamas signed an Egyptian-brokered reconciliation agreement with his Fatah movement in October and agreed to hand over administrative control of the Gaza Strip to the Western-backed PA.

But both groups have failed to finalize details of the deal, which had been due to be completed on December 1. The PA’s decision to resume the electricity payments could help smooth the way towards completing the accord.