Palestinians on edge without power, fuel

Palestinian youth throw stones at passing Israeli troops during an incursion into the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

"Never could I have imagined that the situation would get so complicated," the 60-year-old shopkeeper mused. For days, Gaza has survived on electricity generators but the fuel necessary for their operation is increasingly rare.

For Mahmud at least, business has been booming since Israel took out the only power station in Gaza on June 28, the opening night of a two-week air offensive designed to force the release of a soldier captured by militants on June 25.

Since then, the Palestinian territory has been deprived of electricity and rationing imposed. If generators were a stop-gap solution, now fuel supplies are becoming increasingly difficult to find with many petrol stations shut.

"I have electricity about six hours a day and the rest of the time, I depend on my generator, which eats up 10 litres of diesel oil an hour, "said Suheil Abbud, proprietor of Gaza City's Al-Quds Hotel.

"I only have reserves for two days. If nothing changes, I am going to have to close."

The Gaza Strip's 1.4 million residents are totally dependent for fuel oil supplies on Israel, which controls the Nahal Oz pipeline into the territory.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan last week demanded immediate access for UN relief supplies to Gaza and "urgent action" to alleviate the "desperate humanitarian situation" in the territory.

The UN Relief and Works Agency has put the Gaza Strip "on the brink of a public health disaster" since the power plant strike, with less than a quarter of the fuel needed to run backup generators.

"For seven days, we've been without a drop," said Mahmud Ahmed Ishawa, who heads the Gaza association of petrol station owners.