After hours spent carefully preparing her cakes, Abrar Abdu stood stunned in silence before her oven.
In her small, darkened workshop in Gaza City, the only light came from her phone’s torch, illuminating more than 27 ruined cakes - the result of a sudden power cut and a faulty oven.
Abdu, 34, who runs a small cake business in the Palestinian enclave, was forced to apologise to customers after failing to deliver their orders, refund every payment and absorb the full cost of the wasted ingredients.
“I have incurred devastating financial losses due to the chronic instability of the electricity generators,” she told Middle East Eye.
The losses have pushed her to the brink, she added, threatening not only her liveLike Gaza’s 2.2 million residents, Abdu has struggled to secure a reliable electricity supply since Israel severed all power lines to the strip at the start of the genocide in 2023.
The territory’s sole power plant shut down on 11 October that year after running out of fuel amid the blockade on energy supplies.
'If the current situation persists, Gaza will sink into total darkness'
- Mustafa Abu Hassira, association of generator in Gaza
Since then, Gaza has been plunged into near-total darkness, with residents relying on limited solar power or costly private generators.
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