MIDEAST: Emergency supplies to fuel UN aid efforts in Gaza, as Israeli army continues arrests of Palestinains

Record ID: 792629

  • Title: MIDEAST: Emergency supplies to fuel UN aid efforts in Gaza, as Israeli army continues arrests of Palestinains
  • Date: 24th April 2008
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF TRUCK LOADED WITH FOOD SACKS
  • Embargoed: 9th May 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA4PC6AC121Y7AM8U9VYDAWD9P2
  • Story Text: Palestinian fuel suppliers in the Gaza Strip agreed on Thursday (April 24) to provide an emergency shipment of petrol to a U.N. aid agency to allow the distribution of food to impoverished Palestinians in the Hamas-controlled territory.
    The UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, UNRWA, said on Wednesday (April 23) it would be forced to suspend food distribution to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, citing a shortage in fuel supplies.
    "They (referring to Palestinian fuel suppliers) are doing their best to avert the humanitarian crisis that will follow if UNRWA were to shut down its food distribution. So the Palestinian petroleum suppliers, here in Gaza, have urgently despatched a truck to collect some fuel from the Nahal Oz depot, to again supply us with what we need to keep going for a few days," said John Ging, head of UNRWA in the Gaza Strip.
    Ging added that the Gaza Strip is in need of nine million of litres of diesel every month, and that no diesel had been transferred from Israel in the last 15 days.
    The Palestinian petrol station owners' association has been on strike, refusing to collect the fuel near Nahal Oz fuel terminal in protest of Israel's cutbacks in supplies to the territory. Israel limited fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip after Hamas Islamists routed rival Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, while pledging to allow humanitarian aid to continue to flow.
    Palestinian militants attacked the Nahal Oz fuel terminal two weeks ago, killing two Israeli civilians.
    Mahmoud al-Khuzundar, of the Association for Petrol Station Owners in Gaza, said 50,000 litres of diesel would be delivered to UNRWA on Thursday but he vowed the strike would go on. It was not immediately clear how long the supplies the association agreed to deliver to UNRWA would last.
    An Israeli official estimated that fuel tanks on the Palestinian side of the Nahal Oz crossing --- the only border terminal used to pump fuel to Gaza, contained about a million litres of fuel, accusing Hamas of preventing their distribution.
    "In the past three weeks Israel has sent one million litres of fuel to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It's Hamas which is withholding the delivery of this fuel to the Palestinians there, because of their internal disputes. Hamas is once again using its own citizens, cynically, to deprive them of basic humanitarian goods," David Baker, spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister told Reuters in Jerusalem.
    Also on Thursday (April 24), the Israeli army continued operating in the Gaza Strip.
    A truck full of Palestinians detainees was seen near the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel. The detainees, most of the blindfolded and handcuffed, were loaded on a bus on their way to questioning in a military base in the area.
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