Hamas in the Gaza Strip has reached an agreement by which Qatar will resume subsidizing the salaries of public employees by sending fuel to Gaza, a Hamas official said Tuesday.

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Qatar was contributing to the salaries of some 50,000 employees of the Hamas-run government up until Operation Protective Edge in May by sending suitcases of cash into the territory through Israel. Israel's new government, which was sworn in the following month, vowed to stop that arrangement.

Under the deal reached with Qatar and Egypt, the wealthy Gulf nation will send fuel to Gaza from Egypt that Hamas can resell in order to help cover payrolls, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivities around the agreement.

An Arab official involved in the talks said Qatar has reached a deal with Egypt to pay it for fuel supplies to Gaza, but is still discussing with Hamas guarantees that the proceeds made off the fuel sales in Gaza "are used for the salaries of civil servants, including teachers and doctors." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue with the media.

Hamas civil servants have received irregular payments in lieu of full salaries for years due to a prolonged financial crisis. Even with the Qatari aid, most public workers only receive 55% of their paycheck at best.

Isam Daalis, the top administrator in the Hamas-run government, told reporters Monday that his administration is working to improve the situation and hopes to do so by the next payday.

Qatar is already paying for the fuel for Gaza's sole power plant and resumed financial aid to some 100,000 needy families in September, using a UN-run voucher system. The public salary assistance is the last major tranche of Qatari aid to be restored after the war.

The aid is being given as part of an informal ceasefire brokered by Egypt that is intended to stabilize Gaza.

Israel and Egypt have eased the blockade since the May operation, with Israel conditioning the easing on continued calm. Israeli officials declined comment on the latest Qatari aid.

The Hamas-run Finance Ministry announced a cash-back program for gas stations that buy large quantities of fuel, an apparent attempt to sell it off quickly in order to pay the salaries.

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Gas stations across Iran on Tuesday suffered through a widespread outage of a government system governing fuel subsidies, stopping sales in an incident that one semi-official news agency referred to as a cyberattack.

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Gholam Reza Jalali, the commander of Iran's Civil Defense Organization, accused Israel of carrying out the attack.

"The Zionists are behind the severe disruptions" to the country's gas stations. On Monday, Jalali said Israel was incapable of significantly harming Iran.

An Iranian state television account online shared images of long lines of cars waiting to fill up in Tehran. An Associated Press journalist also saw lines of cars at a Tehran gas station, with the pumps off and the station closed.

State TV did not explain what the issue was but said Oil Ministry officials were holding an "emergency meeting" to solve the technical problem.

The semi-official ISNA news agency, which called the incident a cyberattack, said it saw those trying to buy fuel with a government-issued card through the machines instead receive a message reading "cyberattack 64411," which is reportedly the digits comprising the phone number for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Most Iranians rely on those subsidies to fuel their vehicles, particularly amid the country's economic problems.

While ISNA didn't acknowledge the number's significance, that number is associated to a hotline run through the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that handles questions about Islamic law. ISNA later removed its reports.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the outage. However, the use of the number "64411" mirrored an attack in July targeting Iran's railroad system that also saw the number displayed. Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point later attributed the train attack to a group of hackers that called themselves Indra, after the Hindu god of war.

Indra previously targeted firms in Syria, where President Bashar Assad has held onto power through Iran's intervention in his country's grinding war.

Iran has faced a series of cyberattacks, including one that leaked video of abuses its notorious Evin prison in August.

The country disconnected much of its government infrastructure from the internet after the Stuxnet computer virus – widely believed to be a joint US-Israeli creation – disrupted thousands of Iranian centrifuges in the country's nuclear sites in the late 2000s.

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Lebanon's Hezbollah terrorist organization announced the arrival of a second ship loaded with diesel from Iran to Syria's Baniyas port Thursday evening, the group's al-Manar TV said on its Telegram channel early on Friday.

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The Iran-aligned group said the fuel shipments should ease a crippling energy crisis in Lebanon, while Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the Iranian shipments constitute a breach of Lebanon's sovereignty.

Both Syria and Iran are under US sanctions.

Hezbollah first began bringing Iranian fuel into Lebanon via Syria last week, when dozens of trucks carrying the fuel oil entered northeastern Lebanon near the village of al-Ain. The terorrist organization has said third and fourth shipments from Iran were also due.

Washington has reiterated that its sanctions on Iranian oil sales remain in place. But it has not said whether it is considering taking any action over the move by Hezbollah, which it designates as a terrorist group.

The Lebanese government has said its permission was not sought to import the fuel.

The moves mark an expansion of Hezbollah's role in Lebanon, where critics have long accused the heavily armed group of acting as a state within the state.

Hezbollah has said it will donate fuel oil to institutions in need, including government hospitals and orphanages, and sell it at "an appropriate price" to others including private hospitals, medical storage facilities and flour mills.

The energy crisis is a result of a financial meltdown since 2019, sinking the currency by some 90% and sending more than three-quarters of the population into poverty.

Fuel supplies have dried up because Lebanon does not have enough hard currency to cover even vital imports, forcing essential services including some hospitals to scale back or shut down and sparking numerous security incidents.

Lebanon's state electricity company said on Thursday it risked a total blackout across the country by the end of September as its fuel oil reserves dwindle.

The company can generate less than 500 megawatts from fuel oil it secured through a deal with Iraq, it said in a statement.

It said its reserves of both Grade A and Grade B fuel oil had reached a critical point and had run out already for some plants that have now stopped production.

"The network already experienced total blackouts across the country seven times and if this continues there is a high risk of reaching total and complete blackout by end September," the statement said.

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Iraq signed an agreement in July allowing the cash-strapped Lebanese government to pay for 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil a year in goods and services.

The heavy fuel oil is not suitable for use in Lebanon, but it is exchanged in tenders for a suitable grade.

Western governments and donor institutions have said they will unlock aid once Lebanon enacts reforms.

The United States, a big supplier of humanitarian and military aid to Lebanon, is backing a plan to ease the energy crisis using Egyptian natural gas piped via Jordan and Syria. The US ambassador has said Lebanon does not need Iranian fuel.

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Lebanese fuel prices are expected to double after the state decided Saturday to change the exchange rate used to price petroleum products in a bid to ease crippling shortages that have brought Lebanon to a standstill.

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Amounting to a partial reduction in fuel subsidies, the increase will mean more hardship in a country where poverty levels have soared during a two-year-long financial meltdown that has seen the Lebanese pound depreciate in value by over 90%.

The decision was made at an emergency meeting attended by the president, central bank governor, and other officials over a fuel crisis that has left Lebanon in chaos, paralyzing basic services and sparking daily melees as people scramble for fuel.

The fuel crisis worsened this month when the central bank said it could no longer finance fuel imports at heavily subsidized exchange rates and would switch to market rates. The government objected, refusing to change official selling prices, creating a standoff that left importers in limbo and caused supplies to dry up across the country.

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A warehouse where fuel was illegally stored exploded in northern Lebanon early Sunday, killing 20 people and burning dozens more in the latest tragedy to hit the Mediterranean country in the throes of a devastating economic and political crisis.

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It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion near the border with Syria. Fuel smuggling operations have been ongoing for months.

The Lebanese Red Cross said it evacuated 79 people who were injured or suffered burns in the blast.

A Lebanese military official said the explosion occurred after the army confiscated a warehouse in Tleil where about 60,000 liters (15,850 gallons) of gasoline were stored and the order was given to distribute the fuel to residents of the area. Residents had gathered to acquire the scarce commodity, available only on the black market at exorbitant prices or not at all.

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Iran halted its crucial supply of power to Iraq, fueling fears of protests Tuesday amid instability following the resignation of Iraq's electricity minister.

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Cash-strapped Iran has put pressure on Iraq's government to release payments for power after falling into arrears. The development comes with months of scorching summer temperatures still to come, and ahead of much anticipated federal elections.

Electricity Minister Majed Mahdi Hantoosh submitted his resignation Monday amid popular and political pressure over repeated power outages across the country. Provinces across the country's south – where temperatures currently average 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) – are shortening working hours citing extreme heat.

A call for protests in the oil-rich province of Basra, often the stage of power-related demonstrations, was distributed across social media giving the government until 6 p.m. Tuesday to restore power.

"Or else we will escalate and all of Basra's streets will be cut off, and we will teach the officials a lesson they will never forget," it said.

Iraq's reliance on Iranian energy imports has geopolitical consequences and has been a source of ongoing tensions with the US. Washington has conditioned successive sanctions waivers – enabling these imports to continue – on Iraq becoming more energy independent.

The stakes are high for Iraq's government as electricity outages have routinely led to violent protests, particularly in the south. Federal elections are slated for Oct. 10, the first since mass anti-government protests swept the country in 2019.

Outputs from four cross-border electricity tie-lines from Iran to Iraq were at zero on Tuesday, according to Ministry of Electricity data seen by The Associated Press. The total cuts began this week, a ministry official said. In past weeks supply has fluctuated.

Gas and electricity imports from Iran often meet up to a third of Iraq's power demands.

"Iraq relies on Iranian energy imports heavily, especially in peak summer months," said Yesar al-Maleki, Gulf analyst at the Middle East Economic Survey.

"Gas imports from Iran range from 1.5-1.8 billion cubic feet per day. Now, we see generation in the south collapsing below 1 (gigawatt), meaning not just these lines are offline but even gas flow is down."

Iran feeds gas into Iraq through two pipelines used to power plants in Basra, Samawa, Nasiryah and Diyala. Generation from these plants also plummeted, suggesting supply from Iran in these plants is also low.

The impact has been immediate.

In Basra, the province requires 4,000 megawatts but is currently receiving 830 MW. "It is a catastrophe," said al-Maleki.

The cuts will deprive Iraqis of power to run hospitals, businesses and homes as temperatures rise.

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With calls to demonstrate growing louder, many fear a repeat of violent protests that swept Basra in 2018. These also coincided with Iranian power cuts over non-payment issues.

Iraq owes Iran $4 billion for energy imports. The country' economic crisis has caused delays in part, but even for money earmarked to pay for imports a complex payment scheme designed to evade US sanctions has slowed down transfers.

Through the scheme, Iraq is unable to pay Iran directly for the imports, but can pay for goods, medicines and other expenses related to Tehran's diplomatic mission and Iranian companies working in Iraq. Recently, Iraq purchased vaccines for Tehran.

But Iran has complained the money is trickling in too slowly.

Provinces across Iraq, meanwhile, took precautions and shortened working hours to cope with rising temperatures. Basra, Najaf, Diwanieh and Diyala shortened working days from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

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