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Qatari-bought fuel enters Gaza to ease humanitarian crisis: Hamas
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories, Oct 9, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Qatari-bought
fuel arrived at the Gaza Strip’s only power station after entering through
Israel on Tuesday in a bid to alleviate conditions in the Palestinian
enclave, a Hamas spokesman and sources said.
The delivery could help ease months of protests and clashes along the
border between Israel and Hamas-run Gaza, which has been under a crippling
Israeli blockade for more than a decade.
But it was met with criticism by officials close to Palestinian president
Mahmud Abbas, whose rival administration was not involved.
UN officials and Egypt have in recent weeks pursued indirect talks between
Islamist movement Hamas and Israel. Israeli officials however refused comment
on the delivery.
A Palestinian source at the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza — the
only goods crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel — said six trucks
carrying 450,000 litres of fuel crossed Tuesday.
AFP journalists saw at least one truck arriving at the power station in
Gaza City.
“The Qatari fuel to the Gaza Strip’s power plant today is aimed at
partially improving electricity (supply) in Gaza,” Hamas spokesman Hazem
Qassem told AFP.
For months residents of the strip have been receiving only four hours of
mains electricity a day on average.
The United Nations has warned that Israel’s 11-year blockade of the strip
has resulted in a “catastrophic” humanitarian situation.
Under the UN-brokered deal, Qatar pays for the fuel which is then delivered
through Israel with United Nations monitoring, a diplomatic source said.
In a statement Tuesday Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior official close to Abbas,
threatened retaliatory measures if the fuel deliveries continued.
Hamas seized control of Gaza from Abbas’s Palestinian Authority in a 2007
near civil war.
Multiple reconciliation attempts aimed at restoring the PA to power in Gaza
have failed.
Qassem said that the deliveries were facilitated “through the United
Nations because of the vacuum left by the PA.”
Abbas says that making deals with Hamas amounts to recognising their
control over Gaza in place of the PA.
– ‘They lash out’ –
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Abbas was
exacerbating Gaza woes and thereby fuelling its residents’ aggression toward
Israel.
“Abu Mazen is strangling them economically and they lash out at Israel,” he
told a press conference in his Jerusalem office, referring to Abbas by his
Arabic nickname.
Netanyahu did not specifically refer to the oil shipment but spoke of
“attempts to reach a practical solution so that he will stop this
strangulation.”
He said that if Gaza tension reached boiling point and brought an uptick in
attacks on neighbouring southern Israel “the price they will pay will be very
great.”
“I’m not looking to launch unneccessary wars,” he said. “But if there’s no
alternative you wage war with all your strength.”
Hamas and Israel have fought three wars with Israel since 2008.
The recent unrest has raised fears of yet another conflict.
But there have been attempts in recent weeks by UN officials and Egypt to
reach a long-term truce between the sides through indirect talks.
Much of the international community considers Hamas a terrorist
organisation. It has rejected calls for it to disarm and recognise Israel.
Israel says its blockade of Gaza is necessary to isolate Hamas.
BSS/AFP/MRI/2333 HRS