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Hamas disrupts fuel supplies to Gaza
Hamas attacks fuel aid trucks, diverts fuel from hospitals to its leadership and security forces
By OnTheWeb Monday, April 28, 2008Remember, this is the group Dhimmi Carter said must be “involved in any final peace agreement.”
Hamas disrupts fuel supplies to Gaza
by Khaled Abu Toameh for the Jerusalem Post:
Hamas militiamen in the Gaza Strip on Sunday attacked fuel trucks headed toward the Nahal Oz border crossing, forcing them to turn back, sources in the Palestinian Petroleum Authority said.
The fuel was supposed to go to the UN Relief and Works Agency [UNRWA] and hospitals in the Gaza Strip, the sources said.
“Dozens of Hamas militiamen hurled stones and opened fire at the trucks,” the sources added. “The trucks were on their way to receive fuel supplied by Israel. The drivers were forced to turn back. Some of them had their windshields smashed.”
The Palestinian Petroleum Authority reached an agreement with Israel over the weekend to receive 250,000 liters of fuel after UNRWA complained that it did not have enough fuel to distribute food aid to more than 500,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health also accused Hamas of blocking fuel supplies to hospitals and clinics in the Gaza Strip. The ministry said Hamas gunmen opened fire at a number of trucks that were trying to transfer fuel to the hospitals and clinics.
Eyewitnesses in Gaza City said that at least on four occasions over the past few weeks, Hamas militiamen confiscated trucks loaded with fuel shortly as they were on their way from Nahal Oz to the city.
They added that the fuel supplies were taken to Hamas-controlled security installations throughout the city. “Hamasis taking the fuel for it the vehicles of is leaders and security forces,” the eyewitnesses said. “Because of Hamas’sactions, some hospitals have been forced to stop the work of ambulances and generators.”
PA officials in Ramallah said Hamas’s measures were aimed at creating a crisis in the Gaza Strip with the hope that the international community would intervene and force Israel to reopen the border crossings.
“As far as we know, there is enough fuel reaching the Gaza Strip,” the officials said. “But Hamas’s measures are aimed at creating a crisis. Hamas is either stealing or blocking most of the fuel supplies.”
They pointed out that last week Hamas dispatched hundreds of its supporters to Nahal Oz to block the fuel supplies fromIsrael. Hamas claimed that the protest was organized by farmers and fishermen who were demanding an end to the blockade on the Gaza Strip.
