It has been bombed by Israel, deprived of the fuel it needs to run and repeatedly shut down.

Yet, it turns out, the Gaza Strip's only power plant, known mainly for generating rolling blackouts, also generates annual profits for its investors.

An investigation by Adam Entous of Reuters has uncovered this remarkable fact.

"While Gaza's 1.5 million residents, blockaded by Israel, face electricity shortages, the Palestine Electric Co.'s (PEC) PEC.PL profits were $6.3 million in 2008, up from $4.4 million in 2007," Reuters reported. "Profits are largely distributed in tax-free dividends."

How is this possible?

According to Reuters, the cash-strapped, financially struggling Palestinian Authority is required to pay the PEC about $30 million a year to run the plant - and to pay for the fuel to keep it operating.

This allows the PEC to hand out annual dividends to investors, including a firm where the PA president's son is a vice president.

The power plant story follows another investigative piece by Entous that examined lucrative US contracts given to the PA president's sons.

"A review by Reuters of internal U.S. government records about aid programmes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip found that construction and public relations firms managed by Tarek Abbas and Yasser Mahmoud Abbas received over $2 million in contracts and subcontracts since 2005, when their father became president," according to Reuters.

While Reuters uncovered no explicit wrongdoing, and the US and Abbas sons said the contracts were won through a competitive-bidding process, the stories are likely to undercut PA President Mahmoud Abbas' image as an anti-corruption reformer at a time when the US is looking to draw Israeli PM Benjaman Netanyahu into substantive peace talks with the PA.

There is more info on the stories, including links to the supporting documents, over at Axis Mundi Jerusalem.