Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been suffering from electricity outages since June 28, 2006, when Israel shelled the only electrical power plant in Gaza, in retaliation of the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Hamas.
Since then, Gazans have not had a power supply that exceeds eight hours in a row on any given day. In early September, the electricity crisis came to a head, and Gazans demonstrated demanding that electricity services be improved.