By Xinhua,
Gaza : Israel on Sunday resumed limited fuel deliveries to the Gaza Strip but is to hold off the pumping on Monday due to national holidays, Mujahed Salama, director of Palestinian Petroleum Agency (PPA) said Monday.
The Israeli military closed the West Bank and Gaza Strip from midnight Saturday to midnight Monday for the Jewish religious holiday of Shavuot.
Salama said Nahal Oz fuel crossing in eastern Gaza city worked for a few hours on Sunday to allow the reduced shipments into the Strip, receiving 84 tons of cooking gas, 100,000 liters of vehicle diesel and 420,000 of industrial diesel.
The fuel now is stored at the Palestinian depots at the crossing, he said.
However, Israel kept withholding the gasoline from being piped into Gaza. On Wednesday, Israel closed the crossing after a Palestinian rocket attack wounded a PPA employee at the Palestinian side of Nahal Oz.
Since last September, Israel reduced fuel supplies to Gaza in a bid to prevent Hamas, which rules the territory, from launching rocket attacks against Israeli communities near the coastal Strip. The Israeli army also shut the crossing regularly.
Salama said the fuel that the Palestinians owned can be distributed to local gas stations, but the crisis still exists and the fuel shipments to Gaza must go back to their natural levels.
Meanwhile, Mahmoud al-Shawa, director of the Petrol Station Owners Association, said the 800,000 liters of diesel and 200,000 liters of Benzene will not solve the problem if they are distributed.
He said Gaza needs 5 million liters of diesel and 500,000 liters of Benzene to overcome the crisis.
Al-Shawa also criticized Hamas’ mechanism of fuel distribution, saying that the policy is “reviving the black market” where the single liter of Benzene is sold for 40 shekels instead of its 6.5 shekels official price.
According to current distribution policy, the service stations can not fill any car unless the driver holds permission from Hamas which doesn’t issue the permission for cars without insurance policy or license. (1 U.S. dollar = 3.27 shekels)