Turkey's TİKA provides Palestinians with LED systems

Turkey's international development agency, TİKA, has provided 200 Palestinian families in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip with lighting systems.

Due to electricity shortages in Gaza, TİKA has provided basic lighting LED systems to families who cannot afford to own electricity generators, according to a TİKA statement.

For around 10 years, the Gaza Strip, home to nearly 2 million people, has been witnessing power cuts for more than 12 hours on a daily basis.

Since 2007, the Palestinian territory has groaned under a crippling Israeli blockade that has deprived its inhabitants of the most basic commodities, including food, fuel, medicine and building supplies.

According to a 2015 World Bank report, the nearly decade-long blockade has cut Gaza's gross domestic product in half and led to one of the highest unemployment rates in the world.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has described the blockade - first imposed after the resistance movement Hamas swept 2006 Palestinian polls - as "collective punishment."