Israel closes a border fuel terminal in Gaza

Wednesday June 04, 2008 15:35 by Rami Almeghari - IMEMC & Agencies

The Israeli army ordered on Wednesday the closure of the Nahal Auz fuel terminal in eastern Gaza city, after a homemade shell landed on a Palestinian-run fuel store, just close to the terminal.

Gaza fuel tanker

Mahmoud Alkhuzendar, deputy-chairman of the Gaza fuel stations society, confirmed that the Israeli side closed the Nahal Auz terminal, main artery of fuel into Gaza, and that the Israeli fuel companies stopped shipping fuel into the region.

aL-Khuzendar told media outlets in Gaza that the Israeli decision came immediately after a Palestinian homemade shell landed on a fuel store near the terminal, causing the critical injury of a Palestinian worker.

The Hamas-run interior ministry said in a statement, faxed to press, that targeting fuel pipe lines, which channel fuel and essential gas to Gaza, is irresponsible and aimless.

The statement read that those who are behind this action must be either collaborators with Israel or beneficiaries of the underway crippling Israeli closure. The ministry will hunt down on perpetrators soon, the statement pledged.

On April of this year, a cross-border Palestinian attack , carried out by three Gaza resistance groups, killed two Israeli workers at the Nahal Auz fuel terminal, prompting the Israeli authorities to close it for few weeks.

Closure of Nahal Auz as well as other border crossings on Gaza-Israel border lines, have recently doubled a fueling crisis in the coastal Strip.

In January of this year, Israel decided to further minimize shipments of fuel and cooking gas in what Israel says ' stopping homemade shells fire from Gaza onto nearby Israeli towns'.

Israel has been enforcing a crippling blockade on Gaza since June of last year, after the democratically-elected Islamist Hamas party, took over the region amidst a factional fighting with the secular Fatah party of President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas has repeatedly called for halt of homemade shells fire from Gaza onto Israel, describing such shells as 'aimless'.

gaza strip | palestinian attacks | news report rami at imemc dot org