By Xinhua
Ramallah : Israel’s closure of all Gaza border crossings had violated Israel’s guarantee to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that Israel would not stop basic humanitarian aid inflow into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Tuesday.
Abbas got the promise on June 25 of 2007 from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in the face of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah II, all of whom were then attended a 4-way summit held in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, said Erekat, a long-time confident of Abbas.
According to Erekat, Olmert then promised to Abbas that Israel would not stop supplies of fuel, food, medicine and power to the Gaza Strip, which had just fallen into Hamas’ hands after Hamas militants overran Abbas’ Fatah security forces.
But on Jan. 17, Israel decided to tighten a siege that has been imposed on Gaza since mid-June last year and close all crossings leading to Gaza.
Since then, Israel has been barring fuels and basic food products from reaching the Gaza Strip, in retaliation to ongoing makeshift rocket attacks carried out by Palestinian militants from Gaza against Israel.
The Gaza Strip, home to nearly 1.5 million residents, heavily depends on outside aid inflow of almost everything, from basic foodstuffs to medicine.
“The issue needs a final solution with the intervention of the international community,” Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio.
“The life of 1.5 million people should not be harmed, regardless the (Hamas) coup,” he said, referring to last June’s violent takeover of Gaza by Hamas.
Erekat’s remarks came right after the Gaza Strip received five fuel tankers, which temporarily eased a humanitarian crisis emerging after five days of crossing closure by Israel.
Four of the tankers were loaded with diesel to go to Gaza’s sole power station and the fifth carried cooking gas, Gaza officials said, adding that the four tanks of fuel could barely keep the power plant working for less than one week.
The lack of fuel had forced Gaza’s only power plant to shut down on Sunday, leaving the Hamas-run enclave dependant on some 140 megawatts of electricity that Israel and Egypt provide.
Earlier on Monday evening, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak decided to slightly ease the siege on Gaza and to allow medical supplies and a minimal amount of diesel fuel for the power plant in Gaza.