Gaza fuel crisis forces UN to stop food aid deliveries
United Nations have suspended food aid into the Gaza Strip due to a lack of fuel. Without fuel they are not able to operate the trucks which they use for deliveries.At the request of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), distributors sent an emergency tanker to the Nahal Oz terminal through which Israel transfers petrol and diesel, but it was turned back by 1,500 farmers protesting that they needed fuel just as urgently. The driver was held for three hours, and then forced to return empty.
Palestinian distributors have been on strike for the past four weeks demanding that Israel increase both the supply of fuel and that they guarantee a steady flow.Both sides agree that storage tanks on the Gaza side of the terminal are full, with stocks of up to 1 million litres of fuel. But Mahmoud Khozendar, the distributors' vice-chairman, said that was only enough to meet three or four hours' demand. They needed at least 10 times as much as Israel was prepared to deliver.
The Israelis have been maintaining this boycott ever since Hamas were elected by the Palestinians and the situation has worsened since Hamas took hold of the Gaza Strip in gun battles with Fatah.Israel's declared policy has been to allow in enough fuel, food and medical supplies to keep people alive, but not enough for them to live well.
In other words, starve them without actually killing them. Of course, to pull this off one has to be prepared to indulge in all kinds of semantic arguments to justify such a barbaric practice continuing.
Israel responded by accusing Gaza's de facto Hamas government of "fabricating" a crisis for political purposes. Aryeh Mekel, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, alleged that Hamas had sent the protesting farmers to block UNRWA's shipment.
"Three weeks ago we sent in one million litres of fuel," he said. "Hamas refuses to take it in order to create an artificial so-called humanitarian crisis. They are trying to break the so-called blockade. They have enough fuel to meet all the humanitarian needs."
I know what Israel calls the "so-called blockade" is very real, so I am going to presume the same is true of the "so-called humanitarian crisis". Blockades produce crisis's, which is the very reason why country's like Israel impose them, so it's a bit rich for the Israelis to talk as if this crisis is of Palestinian making.
Indeed, such is the hardship in Gaza that Hamas have offered a six month ceasefire if Israel will lift the blockade.
Last night Hamas proposed a six-month cease-fire with Israel, saying the Gaza Palestinian group would stop firing rockets into the Jewish state if Israel lifts its blockade of the coastal strip at the same time, Egypt's state run Mena news agency reported.
The report came after a day of closed-door meetings between Egypt's powerful intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who has been mediating between Hamas and Israel, and Hamas' strongman, Mahmoud Zahar.
The effects of the blockade can be seen everywhere:
Local journalists report that bakeries and snack bars are closing for want of fuel. The roads are almost empty. Motorists who converted their cars to drive on cooking gas are running out of that too.
John Ging, director of the UNRWA in Gaza, said: "People are desperate. Everybody needs fuel. If the farmers can't get fuel, they can't pump water to irrigate their crops. About 70,000 people are without water in their homes; 25 per cent are getting water once every four days because of electricity cuts. All the hospitals are below the critical mark in their fuel resources.
"The laundry service in Gaza's biggest hospital has been reduced by 50 per cent, with all the unhygienic consequences. Teachers have no fuel to drive to their schools. It's not the distributors' responsibility to decide between hospitals and municipalities, or whether a doctor should get fuel."
Israel now attempts to have it's cake and eat it, by imposing a blockade on a civilian population and then trying to blame Hamas for the fact that the blockade is having the desired effect.
Robert Serry, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, has called what Israel is doing "collective punishment" but he has also attacked Hamas for it's rocket fire into Israel. "These attacks endanger both international and Israeli civilians, and cannot possibly contribute to Palestinian efforts to ease the blockade of Gaza," he said.
Hamas's offer of a ceasefire would, one would suspect, be enough to bring the matter to an end and stop the embargo. But it will do nothing. Israel will ignore the offer and continue exactly as before, because they refuse to deal with Hamas, despite the fact that Hamas were elected by the Palestinians, and despite the fact that a majority of Israelis want their government to enter into negotiations with Hamas.
Israel are hoping that their blockade will bring about the collapse of Hamas and are continuing that blockade long after it has become obvious that the blockade will achieve no such thing.
It's a dumb policy and an immoral one.
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