Israel Matzav

Israel resuming fuel supplies to Gaza

Israel plans to transfer fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip via the Nahal Oz depot within the "next couple of days," a government official told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday night.

Israel also dismissed as "Hamas spin" Palestinian claims that fuel was running low and that electricity supplies in Gaza would have to be cut.

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According to Israeli officials, the claim that fuel supplies were running low in Gaza was untrue. Sixty percent of the Strip's electricity comes in power lines from the Israeli grid via the Ashkelon plant. Another 10% comes from Egypt. Both these supplies are continuing unhindered.

Two days prior to the Nahal Oz attack last Wednesday, Gaza's fuel distributors stopped distributing all fuel to protest Israel's reduced petrol supplies to the territory. The Gas Station Owners' Association in Gaza said it hoped the move would pressure Israel to supply more fuel.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel told the Post, "This is malicious cynicism on the part of Hamas to allow a terrorist attack in which two Israeli civilians are killed, and then to immediately complain if Israel cuts fuel supplies as a result."

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Malikha's claim that the Gaza plant was suffering from a fuel shortage was dismissed by Col. Nir Press, head of the IDF's Coordination and Liaison Administration at Erez. "The State of Israel has continued to transfer fuel into the Gaza Strip in a continuous manner in the recent period," said Press.

"In the past two weeks, we have seen Palestinian activity aimed at instigating a crisis in the fuel sector through planned strikes and protests," Press continued. "The closed fuel stations in Gaza and the long lines of vehicles and people waiting long hours to fill their cars are the product of Hamas activity and a planned media campaign, which comes at the expense of [Gazan] residents."

The "crisis" has "been caused by a failure to gather fuel on the Palestinian side of the Nahal Oz depot," Press said.

"For the past two weeks, fuel on the Palestinian side of Nahal Oz could have been gathered and distributed to gas stations, but this has not happened… as of today, 188,000 liters of gasoline and over 800,000 liters of diesel fuel are sitting in containers on the Palestinian side," he added. "Hamas is deliberately harming civilians in Gaza by refusing to allow the fuel to be gathered and distributed to gas stations for humanitarian needs."

The Coordination and Liaison Administration said 2,200,000 liters of diesel fuel and fuel oil is transferred to the Gaza power plant every week. An unlimited amount of cooking gas, 800,000 liters of diesel fuel and 75,000 liters of gasoline cross into Gaza every week, the administration added.

"The diesel fuel and gasoline which Israel transfers to Gaza is intended first and foremost for ambulances, operating water pumps, sewage treatment systems and the running of generators in institutions such as hospitals, schools, medical clinics, agricultural needs, vehicles, school rides, food trucks [and] garbage collection," the statement said.

Wednesday's terrorist attack on the fuel depot was "further proof of the terrorism directed from the Gaza Strip at Israel, directed at crossings which serve the Palestinians, and at Israeli civilians who were working for the welfare of Palestinians," Press said.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:28 AM