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A drive launched by a group of London doctors and a Montreal filmmaker to equip hospitals in the Gaza Strip with solar panels to prevent life-threatening blackouts has exceeded its original fundraising goals.

Enough money has now been raised to install the critical solar panels on as many as six hospitals, said Ben Thomson, a kidney specialist now practising in ­Kingston.

“Things have gone very, very well,” Thomson said.

The group, dubbed EmpowerGaza, launched an online drive to raise money last spring with an initial goal of $200,000. When the online campaign was complete, about US $250,000 was raised, Thomson said.

Other private donations that came in were more than double that amount, he said.