Hamas says gunman killed in clash with IDF troops in Gaza

Israel Defense Forces troops killed a Hamas militant in a clash in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Hamas sources said.

Hamas and Gaza residents said IDF troops exchanged fire with Hamas militants inside the coastal strip near a border crossing between Israel and southern Gaza.

Residents said IDF tanks crossed into the territory after the clash.

An IDF spokeswoman said she was looking into the report.

Earlier Tuesday, Hamas' Damascus-based political bureau chief said the Palestinians will keep targeting Israel with rockets as long as the IDF continues its "onslaught" on Gaza and the West Bank.

"We are dealing with aggressive Zionist behavior," Khaled Meshal said in an interview from Damascus. "Let Israel stop its aggression and its occupation of Palestinian land and the resistance, including rockets, will stop."

Israel delivered fuel to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the first shipment since it stepped up the embargo on the Hamas-controlled territory in response to the massive Qassam rocket barrages that targeted Israeli communities in recent days.

Also on Tuesday, 15 Qassam rockets hit the western Negev, causing no injuries or damage. Palestinian snipers also opened fire on an IDF patrol along the Gaza border near Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha. There were no injuries in that attack.

The director of Gaza's power plant, Derar Abu Sissi, said that one of its two turbines powered back up as the fuel arrived, restoring electricity to some outlying areas of Gaza City. The plant shut down Sunday in the wake of the fuel shortage, leaving much of Gaza without electricity.

Five Israeli tanker trucks parked at the Nahal Oz crossing on the Gaza border pumped 700,000 liters of fuel to the other side, enough to provide electricity to Gaza City for two days. Three more trucks delivered cooking gas, and a shipment of medicine was to be delivered later in the day.

In all, Israel has promised three fuel deliveries over three days, for a total of 2.2 million liters, enough to keep the power plant running for a week, said Kanan Obeid, head of Gaza's energy authority.

Defense officials said the fuel would be enough to power hospital generators, water and sewage pumps, as well as the Gaza power plant for "the immediate future."

Mahmoud Khouzander, a spokesman for Gaza's gas station owners, said the group would reject a planned Israeli shipment of 70,000 liters of fuel for cars as insufficient.

Israel agreed Monday to allow some fuel and medicine shipments into the besieged territory, vowing not to allow a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip but blaming Hamas for the current situation.

The decision followed growing international pressure at what was described as an imminent humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

The United Nations Security Council will not approve a resolution condemning Israel over the closure of the Gaza Strip, due to pressure applied by the United States.

The council instead planned to issue a Presidential Statement on the matter.

Red Cross warns basic services in Gaza may collapseThe International Red Cross issued a dire warning on the state of basic services in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, calling on Israel to lift a blockade it has imposed in response to rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.

The agency said a shipment would be allowed into Gaza later Tuesday, but said aid needed to be allowed into the territory on a regular basis to prevent a complete collapse of health and sanitary services.

"Deliveries of essential humanitarian goods must be secured in the long run to prevent more hardship and to avoid the collapse of the already fragile infrastructure," said Dorothea Krimitsas, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

As Israel delivered some fuel for Gaza's power plant on Tuesday, easing the blockade, Krimitsas said the situation was still very precarious, with Gaza's hospitals pooling their fuel so that live-saving services could be maintained, such as surgery and intensive care units.

Medical supplies, however, are running out and health staff are having problems getting to work because transportation has become more difficult, Krimitsas told reporters.

"There is no functioning central heating in the hospitals," she added.

Krimitsas said Israel needed to provide conditions for Palestinians to live normal lives without relying forever on emergency relief. "Humanitarian aid alone cannot help contain the crisis," she said. What is needed are political steps."

	A fuel tanker arrives at Gaza's main power plant following an Israeli fuel delivery Tuesday. (AP)