Israel demanded Hamas pay its electric bill or suffer the natural consequences of not paying, reports said.

IDF Major General Yoav Mordechai said, "The cost of fuel to operate the power plant in Gaza is rising and Hamas is not willing to pay these costs or the cost of fuel it consumes on its own.

"If the situation is not resolved in the coming days, the production of electricity may be cut and it will be the residents of the Strip who face the dire consequences and pay the price.

"The responsibility lies with Hamas. We regret the fact that it will be the civilians in Gaza who will pay the price for this.

Gaza receives its power from the Israeli energy company Dor, but has not paid the company for several months. After the energy crisis a few months ago, Gaza received a supply of fuel from Turkey and Qatar sent three months' worth of funds, but both supplies are nearly spent.

Gaza has infrastructure to receive power from both Egypt and Israel, but in practice receives nothing from Egypt.

In addition to the Gaza, debt, the Palestinian Authority has not paid its electric bill to Israel in ten years, forcing Israeli citizens to foot the bill for terrorists' electricity and suffer outages when the demand for electricity was higher than the grid could supply.

In a recent agreement, the PA agreed to pay its $530 million debt in 48 monthly installments. However, this agreement did not include the electricity supplied to Gaza.

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) PA

The agreement was signed by Mordechai, Palestinian Authority Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheik, Israel’s Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Israel’s Ministry of Finance Director-General Shai Babad.

Hamas leaders enjoy 24/7 electricity, but the average Gazan citizen receives only 2-3 hours of power per day. In January, Gazans protested against Hamas handling of electricity. One youth even set himself ablaze in protest of Hamas.