Subscribe to Print Edition | Sun., April 27, 2008 Nisan 22, 5768 | | Israel Time: 02:01 (EST+7) web haaretz.com   Back to Homepage Rosner's Domain Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Advertising Books Arts & Leisure Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File

Israel claims Hamas causing fake fuel shortage in Strip By Yuval Azoulay and Avi Issacharoff Israel claims that Hamas is refusing to pump a large amount of fuel that is in storage tanks on the Palestinian side of the border in order to create a fabricated crisis and blame it on Israel. A spokesman for the coordinator of the Israeli government's activities in the territories, Peter Lerner, said that the Palestinian side of the fuel depot at Nahal Oz contains about a million liters of fuel - 800,000 liters of diesel and another 200,000 or so liters of gasoline, but Hamas is preventing its distribution. Advertisement The head of the Coordination & Liaison Administration at the Erez crossing, Colonel Nir Press, yesterday accused the Hamas regime of sabotaging United Nations relief work in the Gaza Strip. Press said that a fuel tanker that left Gaza yesterday headed for the Nahal Oz depot to pump fuel for UNRWA's use was halted by thousands of Palestinians who blocked one of the intersections en route to the depot. UNRWA suspended food distribution to 650,000 refugees yesterday because of the fuel shortage for its vehicles. At the beginning of this week, Israel supplied around a million liters of industrial-grade diesel fuel for operating the Gaza power plant. The Coordination & Liaison Administration said that the Palestinians pumped that fuel shipment. According to Press, Israel has lately supplied large amounts of fuel to Gaza, but the Palestinians are not pumping it from the tankers on the Palestinian side of the depot at Nahal Oz. Because of this, Press charged, fuel that is supposed to also to serve UNRWA in its humanitarian efforts in the Strip is not reaching its destination. "The Palestinian have not been pumping out the fuel throughout the past month, and they are not taking care of meeting civilian humanitarian needs. Hamas thereby creates shortage, hardship and crisis," Press said. However, UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said, regarding the claim that Hamas is preventing fuel distribution, that his organization is out of fuel for their cars. "We are very careful not to blame anyone. Israel controls the Strip and can find ways to get us the fuel we need," he said. German news agency DPA quoted Gaza Strip residents yesterday as saying that Hamas officials have taken fuel for their own purposes and given it to high-ranking officials, government employees and its own students, but has not distributed the remainder to the population at large. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Fake reactor Syrian envoy: Photos of alleged nuke site fabricated by CIA. Modern Moses Commander of legendary Jewish immigrant ship Exodus dies at 90.

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