Who will light the road to Rafah?
Despite Salah al-Din Road in the Gaza Strip having already claimed the lives of many, no agency has stepped forward to foot the high electricity bill to make the road safer.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Salah al-Din Road connects the Gaza Strip's municipalities, extending over roughly 46 kilometers, from the far north of the Gaza Strip, in Beit Hanoun, to Rafah city in the far south. In 2013, four phases were set for the development of the road with the support and financing of the Qatari Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza.
While three of the phases have now been completed, the road still lacks lighting, and citizens and drivers fear Salah al-Din Road has become lethal.
What hinders the illumination of the road is the electricity crisis plaguing Gaza and the failure of the various government bodies and municipalities to pay the electricity bills. Lighting poles have been installed along the road, but they remain unlit.
Hamid Alwan, from the city of Khan Yunis, drives a Skoda. He told Al-Monitor, “Drivers do not know how to drive on this road, as a new geometric design has been created that they have not seen before; there is a slow lane for those driving to side cities and a fast lane for those driving straight through Gaza. This requires a great deal of concentration. The situation gets more dangerous as the night falls given the lack of lighting. All we have is car lights, but these provide poor vision, which is why accidents happen frequently.”
