A rare deal, reached between Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian National Authority ( PNA) Tuesday, has reduced on Wednesday an electricity shortage the enclave has been going through for several months.

According to the deal, the PNA will ship 500,000 liters of industrial diesel on daily bases to the Gaza Strip to reoperate Gaza's sole power station, where the Hamas administration would collect money from consumers and transfer it to the PNA.

The PNA buys diesel from Israeli companies and pays them back after it receives the money from Hamas. The deal has reduced the hours of blackout, and instead of supplying the Gaza Strip with six-hour electricity per-day, every house will receive 8-hour electricity and 8-hour blackout.

Raed Fattouh, the Palestinian liaison officer at Kerem Shalom commercial crossing point on the border between southeast Gaza Strip and Israel, told Xinhua that the PNA coordinated with Israeli authorities to ship diesel to the Gaza Strip and pump it at the crossing to operate Gaza's power station.

Ahmed Abu al-Amrin, spokesman of the Hamas-run energies corporation, told Xinhua that Gaza power station will be partially operated on Wednesday evening, using the diesel received Wednesday from the PNA through the controlled crossing of Kerem Shalom.

"Keeping Gaza's power station working depends on keeping diesel arriving in the Gaza Strip every day. Our corporation transferred 2 million Israeli shekels ( about 534,000 U.S. dollars) to the treasure of the PNA in Ramallah and another 2 million shekels was collected from the consumers," said Abu al-Amrin.

On Tuesday, the deposed government of Hamas officially announced that it had reached an agreement with the PNA in the West Bank to ship industrial diesel to the Gaza Strip as a partial solution to the crisis of electricity shortage that has been going on for several weeks.

"The money for the fuel will be transferred to the treasure of the government in Ramallah after being collected from consumers," said Hamas government's statement. However, the crisis won't be completely resolved, with the hours of blackout reduced from 12 to eight per-day.

Ghassan al-Khatib, spokesman of the PNA government in the West Bank, told Xinhua that the arrangements of shipping fuel to Gaza is going on as agreed, as long as Gaza pays for the fuel.

"According to the deal, this mechanism will go on temporarily until the long-run solutions agreed upon with Egypt are implemented," said al-Khatib, adding that "according to the deal, Gaza government guaranteed to send the PNA all the official invoices in order to get the tax revenues from Israel back."

According to an economical agreement reached between Israel and the PNA in 1995, the Palestinians' products and goods, which go to Palestinian territories through Israeli-controlled crossings and terminals, are taxed by Israel and then paid back to the PNA.

"Hamas government held all the official receipts and invoices of Gaza merchants and didn't let them send to the PNA to get tax revenues back to its budget," said al-Khatin, adding that since 2007, when Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip by force, the PNA looses 150 million shekels (40.2 million dollars) every year.

It is the second time in less than one month that the PNA ships fuel to the Gaza Strip through Kerem Shalom Crossing point to Gaza 's power station. The European Union used to pay for the fuel to the power station, but stopped the financing in 2009, which was 50 million shekels (13.4 million dollars) per month.

In January 2011, Gaza Energy Corporation decided not to buy industrial diesel from Israel through the PNA and instead depend on Egyptian fuel smuggled from Egypt through underground tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

However, in December 2011, Egypt tightened the control of fuel smuggling, which leads to a fuel shortage in the Gaza Strip that reached its peak this week, with three children burned to death when a candle fell on the floor in their bedroom.

Hamas has been insisting that it would only allow fuel from Egypt, and rejected the idea of accepting fuel bought by the PNA from Israel and shipped through the Israeli controlled kerem Shalom crossing point.

Facing heavy criticism and popular pressure, Hamas is also making contacts with Egypt and several Arab states to resolve the crisis.