The ancient city of Jericho became the first Palestinian municipality to end its reliance on Israel-supplied electricity when the city was connected to the Jordanian electric grid on Monday. The move comes amid fierce criticism of Israel for reducing fuel and power allotments to the Gaza Strip as a means of forcing Hamas, the controlling entity, to end the firing of Qassam rockets into Israel. Ironically, the move by Jericho occurred as Egyptian natural gas begins flowing into the Jewish state pursuant to a deal cut in 2005. The gas comes from a field in the northern Sinai Peninsula and travels about 60 miles through an underground pipeline to the Israeli port of Ashkelon. Sixty billion cubic feet of gas will flow annually from Egypt to Israel at a total cost of $2.5 billion.