Hiyam Noir / PalestineFreeVoice – 2007-12-08 23:39:58

http://uruknet.info/?p=m38943&hd=&size=1&l=e

War Crime:
Israelis Cut Off Fuel and Electricity to Gaza Strip
Hiyam Noir / PalestineFreeVoice

(December 5, 2007) — The Israelis continues its strangulation of the Gaza Strip and its 1.5 million inhabitants. The Palestinian General Petroleum Corporation reported that the Israelis have cut the delivery of fuel to a half of its normal supply to the Gaza Strip on Monday. The fuel companies in Gaza Strip imported up to 350,000 liters of diesel and the same amount of gasoline and 300 tons of gas used for cooking on an average.

On Tuesday most gas stations have closed and there are not many cars on the roads. Medical services in some health centres were disrupted as petrol stations closed down after Israel cut back fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip. Gaza Strip is completely dependent of fuel import. The normal and average transport of fuel to the people on Gaza Strip tangents over 100 thousands of liters/day.

Mahmoud Al-Khizindar the chairman of the Federation of Gaza Oil & Fuel Companies said that the Palestinian General Petroleum Corporation has about 16,000 liters of fuel remaining and only 30% of the gas needed by the households for cooking and heating is available.

The Israelis “High Court” upheld the fuel cuts in a ruling on Friday, defeating a petition by Palestinian and international human rights groups, which argue that cutting of fuel and gas is illegal and constitute a collective punishment.

The Israelis has gradually reduced supplies to the Gaza Strip since June — but the stop of fuel delivery to the Gaza Strip is nothing new — cutting off the electricity or the fuel supply, has happened several times before. There is almost no normal every day life in Gaza these days and the civilian population has been facing a reality of collective punishment by the Israeli Zionists for decades.

The Israelis decision to cut the supply of electricity and fuel will also hurt the water supply, the water pumping stations, like the sanitation systems which are operated by electricity. Again there is nothing new about this. The Israelis are already undermining the water infrastructure on Gaza Strip, and the Gaza Strip is already at the edge of a severe emergency water crisis.

The implications of a water crisis could bring about a humanitarian and environmental disaster in and outside Gaza Strip, as a result of the pollution of the sea water and the beaches in Israel as well.

In recent months, Israel is blocking the transfer of spare parts and equipments for the Gaza Strip water infrastructure. The stocks of spare parts are since long running out, some of the water pumps have no spare parts at all. In its awful consequence, the absence of major components for the infrastructure and equipment components, will lead to the collapse of the water and the systems of sanitation.

Such a collapse would certainly cause a disaster when sewage water will leak into the sea and the drinking water and cause a spread of diseases.

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