Middle East News
UN relief agency to suspend operations in Gaza again
By DPA
May 5, 2008, 9:33 GMT

Gaza City - For the second time in a week, the United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees needs to suspend its operations in the Gaza Strip, a spokesman said Monday.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is running out of fuel by the end of the day, Chris Gunness told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

It will therefore no longer be able to continue its services to 650,000 Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, including crucial food handouts.

UNRWA receives a weekly quota of 55,000 litres of diesel and petrol through the Israeli-controlled Nahal Oz crossing. It received its last quota exactly a week ago, which 'is running out today.' UNRWA's own storage of 200,000 litres of fuel was also empty, Gunness said.

An Israeli military spokesman said no fuel would be delivered Monday through the Nahal Oz crossing, which was closed because Palestinian militants fired three mortar shells at the terminal on Sunday.

The mortars pose a 'security risk for the people who work there. The terminal is closed today. There will be no transfer of fuels,' she told dpa. She was unable to say when it would reopen, but added 'probably in the next few days.'

UNRWA already had to suspend its operations in Gaza for almost three days on Saturday last week. It received its weekly fuel quota on Monday last week, with delays due to previous attacks on the crossing, including one last month in which two civilian Israeli truck drivers were killed.

Gunness said UNRWA would also have to suspend its education system in Gaza refugee camps, because teachers were no longer able to reach schools, as well as its social services, because dozens of social workers were unable to reach work and carry out their outreach programmes, he said.

'It's the second time in a week we've had to do this,' he said.

Since October 2007, Israel has greatly cut the supplies of fuel to Gaza over ongoing, near-daily rocket attacks from the Strip.

It has reduced the amount of diesel being transported into Gaza by more than 40 per cent to 800,000 litres a week, used mainly for ambulances and hospital generators.

It has also cut by more than 80 per cent the amount of petrol for private cars, to just over 75,000 litres a week.

As a result, the vast majority of private cars in Gaza are no longer on the streets and Gazans have been walking, sometimes long distances, to school and work. Donkey carts have become an increasing part of the street scenery.

Gaza petrol station owners have also been on strike for more than a month, refusing to distribute the 20 per cent of petrol they are continuing to receive - protesting the cut and seeking to step up the international pressure on Israel.

For about two weeks, the Union of Gas Station Owners even refused to pick up 1 million litres of gasoline and diesel stored at Nahal Oz, sparking Israeli accusations that the fuel crisis in Gaza was being 'staged.'

But the Union issued a statement Monday, saying it picked up the 1 million litres accumulated at Nahal Oz and transferred it to its own storage sites, to rob Israel of any 'excuses.'

It said it would distribute only some of the fuel to hospitals and other humanitarian needs, but it would continue its strike until fuel supplies were back to normal.

Palestinian militants meanwhile continued to fire rockets into Israel, with at least seven landing in the Israeli town of Sderot and its surroundings.

Hamas, which rules Gaza, did not participate in the attacks, because it has accepted an Egyptian-mediated offer for a truce, to which Israel has yet to respond.

Militant off-shoots of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLC), claimed responsibility for Monday's attacks.