The main power plant in the Gaza Strip has been forced to shut down because of a shortage of fuel, plant officials have said.
One turbine at the plant was shut down on Sunday, causing blackouts.
The shut-down late on Monday of the remaining two turbines left much of Gaza City in darkness, a local resident told the BBC.
industrial fuel shipments from Israel were halted last week after fierce border clashes and rocket fire.
The Israeli military staged an incursion into Gaza and sent air strikes, killing at least seven Palestinian militants, while militants fired a barrage of rockets into southern Israel.
Israel ordered border crossings closed after Palestinian militants fired a rocket on Sunday, which landed without causing casualties.
Israel said the crossings would remain closed on Monday but that the decision would be the subject of evening talks involving Defence Minister Ehud Barak.
Hospital fears
The Gaza City plant provides about a quarter of Gaza's electricity, and more than half the electricity used by the city itself.
Most of the rest of the supply to the territory of 1.5 million people comes directly via power lines from Israel.
Palestinian engineers had been implementing a system of rolling blackouts to different areas of Gaza City to prevent the lines from Israel becoming overloaded and cutting out.
Without a grid system, they have no way to divert power to essential utilities such as hospitals or sewage treatment works. Aid agencies had warned of a serious threat to public health if the plant went offline.
Oxfam said Gaza's seven largest hospitals had stocks of diesel to supply generators for about a week, although one of the smaller ones - al-Quds hospital - had only 36 hours' supply.
The aid agency said that the water utility had no stocks of fuel for generators, which meant the sewage disposal system would break down as soon as mains electricity was cut.
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