World Bulletin/News Desk

Electricity will partially return to houses and hospitals in the Gaza Strip on Sunday as repair operations started in the main power line which had been targeted by an Israeli strike, a Palestinian official said.

"Electricity will be provided as of Sunday with the rate of 6 hours of operation followed by  12 hours of outage and then another 6 hours of operation," Gamal al-Derdesawi, a spokesman for the Gaza Strip's electricity authority, told Anadolu Agency.

Gaza's main power plant was forced to shut down after it has been targeted by an airstrike on July 29, during the Israel's weeks-long offensive in the embattled coastal enclave.

Much of the Gaza Strip's power grid network, include the power line that carries electricity from Israel, has been damaged during the Israeli offensive – ongoing since the late night of July 7.

Al-Derdesdawi said that the power line linking Gaza to Israel has been repaired.

The Gaza Strip, home to some 1.8 million people, has groaned under a daily 21-hour electricity outage since the Israeli attack on the 65-megawatt power plant which supplies about one third of the strip's total electricity needs.

Last week, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdullah said in Ramallah that a floating power plant is ready sail off to the Gaza Strip's coast to supply the enclave with electricity.

However, a source from the Palestinian electricity authority told AA that Israel has yet to guarantee that the 50-megawatt floating plant, which was supplied by an "Arab country," would not be targeted during the ongoing offensive.

The Gaza Strip has been obtaining around a quarter of its 420-460 megawatt electricity needs from Israel for several years. Egypt, which supplied Gaza with 27 megawatts, has increased the supply by 5 megawatts since the beginning of the Israeli offensive.

At least 1918 Palestinians have been killed thus far in Israel's deadliest offensive on the Gaza Strip in six year, according to Palestinian officials. Around 10,000 Palestinians have also been injured

Palestinian factions on Friday launched several rockets at Israel, as soon as a three-day ceasefire expired, saying Israel has refused the conditions of the resistance during Cairo-hosted negotiations.

Israel, for its part, resumed airstrikes on the Gaza Strip shortly after the rockets' launch.

Israel claims that its offensive – dubbed "Operation Protective Edge" aims at undermining rocket-fire capabilities by Gaza-based Palestinian factions.

According to Israeli figures, at least 64 soldiers have been killed in battles with Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip and three civilians by rocket fire.