Deputy-head of the Gaza Strip fuel society, Mahmoud Al-Khuzendar, stated that Israel allowed small quantities of fuel into the coastal region on Wednesday afternoon.
In a phone interview with IMEMC, Al-Khuzendar made clear that only 180,0000 liters of gasoline, used for generating electriricty, and 90 tons of cooking gas, were unloaded by Israeli trucks in Gaza.
‘over the past few weeks, Israeli has supplyed Gaza with reduced quantities of fuel, accumulating at the Nahal Oz fuel terminal, with a total of 180,0000 liters of gasoline, yet we refuse to receive them until Israel determines fair quantities for the region’, aL-Khuzendar added.
The Palestinian official added that the quantities, shipped to Gaza today, can not meet the minimum needs of the 1.5 million residents, making clear that Gaza needs at least 600,000 liters of gasoline and Benzene, and 300 tons of cooking gas on daily basis.
The fuel crisis in Gaza has doubled over the past week, when Israel declared closure of the Nahal Oz fuel terminal in eastern Gaza city, following a Palestinian resistance cross-border attack there, which claimed the lives of two Israeli civil workers and two Palestinian resistance fighters.
Representatives of Gaza universities declared suspension of the educational services to cope with the fueling crisis on Tuesday. The crisis has caused sharp shortage of public transportations.
The Gaza Strip society for Taxi drivers told IMEMC that only 50 to 60 out of 4,600 taxi cabs are in service now, as many vehicles’ owners have been forced to use cooking gas or oil to operate their cars ‘dangerously’.
Yesterday, Karin Abu Zaid, the Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said during a meeting in Gaza with Jamal Al-Khudari, head of the local committee for breaking the siege, that the situation is ‘disastrous’ and called for international intervention.
Since last October, the Israeli government has been enforcing large cuts of fuel and electricity supplies to Gaza’s population, in what Israel claims is a bid to stop homemade shells being fired from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip onto nearby Israeli towns.
In February 2008, the European Union parliament passed a resolution, branding the Israeli actions on Gaza as ‘collective punishment’ and urged Israel to halt such actions for the harm they cause to civilian life.
