Israel: fuel shipment to Gaza to thwart UN Security Council condemnation of Gaza siege

Tuesday January 22, 2008 20:16

by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News

Israeli government sources stated on Tuesday that the latest fuel shipment Israel allowed into the Gaza strip is an attempt to sabotage any Security Council condemnation of the siege imposed on the Gaza strip by Israel.

Blackout in Gaza - File 2007

Arab states that have representation in the UN Security Council called of an emergency session on Tuesday in an attempt to win UN Security Council condemnation of the Israeli siege on the Gaza strip. After a widespread international outcry following Israel cutting off of all fuel into Gaza on Sunday, Israeli authorities agreed to allow fuel and medicine into the Palestinian coastal region today for one day.

Senior Israeli government officials told Israeli media that their government is concerned that the UN Security Council will accept the Arab states call to charge Israel with collective punishment. Medical sources in Gaza said that on Monday night at least five Palestinian civilians with severe illnesses died in Gaza city due to the power black out caused by the Israeli siege on the Gaza strip.

Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. Secretary of State, stated today that she called Israeli officials and asked them to avoid a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Rice again blamed the Hamas movement and Palestinian resistance for the situation in the Coastal Region, for continuing to fire home made shells at neighboring Israeli towns, the reason Israel has given to impose the latest siege on Gaza.

Palestinian resistance shells had lightly injured three Israelis last week. While in the same week the Israeli Army attacks on Gaza left 37 Palestinians dead and at least 70 others injured. On Thursday last week, the Israeli government decided to keep pressure on the Gaza Strip by further attacking Palestinian resistance groups. On Friday Israel declared all Gaza's crossings completely closed, with a total ban of fuel and supplies to the coastal region.

On Sunday evening a general power black out struck the coastal region since the solo Gaza power plant relies on Israeli fuel to supply Gaza with electricity. Israeli security officials admitted that the impact of Israel's complete cut-off of the Gaza Strip were "worse than they expected when they put the plan in place." The 1.5 million residents in the Gaza Strip are once again in a total blackout, an event that has become commonplace since Israel's bombing of the Gaza power plant in 2006.

On Monday the Israeli Defense Minister Ehod Barak ordered his army to step up the siege imposed on the coastal region to a new level. The new orders include that the Israeli army will stop allowing electrical devices like laptops MP3, MP4, and GPS devices which are used by media agencies working in the Gaza Strip.

Barak stated that the new set of restrictions is intended to stop the ruling Hamas party of controlling and running the Gaza Strip. Hamas, however, won the Palestinian democratic elections in 2006, and again in June 2007, after several months of bloody internal struggle with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah Party, Hamas took total control of the coastal region.