Palestinian children hold candles during a power cut in Gaza city August 18, 2007. Israel plans to open a Gaza Strip crossing for several hours to let fuel be transported to the territory, the army said on Saturday, a day after power generators there shut down due to a fuel blockade. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA)
Poor Gazan children forced to use candles because racist Israel is blockading fuel to Gaza?
Funny, other wire services seem to indicate otherwise:Israel opened the Nahal Oz crossing in central Gaza to allow fuel into the Hamas-controlled coastal strip, but power plant officials said the private Israeli fuel company Dor Alon had yet to deliver any fuel.
Palestinian officials said a European Union aid program, which funds fuel for the plant, has not sent monitors to the crossing to facilitate the shipment as required.
An EU diplomat said an assessment of the funding program was being made and a decision was likely tomorrow.
Dor Alon had no immediate comment, but officials said the supplier was delaying the shipment because it was unclear who would pay for it.
About half of Gaza's 1.5 million residents will be affected by the plant's blackout, power plant officials said.
Israel stopped fuel shipments through Nahal Oz late last week, citing security threats.
Israeli Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the decision to resume deliveries was for Dor Alon to make.
“This is a private company that probably received a security warning from the Defence Ministry. That is why, and rightfully so, the fuel shipments were halted. I assume fuel will start flowing again in a day or two,” Ben-Eliezer said.
Ben-Eliezer said that Israel, which supplies 70 per cent of Gaza's electricity, was in the process of adding a new power line into the territory.
Israel supplies most of Gaza's electricity as part of past interim peace deals.So Israel supplies most of the electricity into the Gaza statelet that is sworn to destroy it, it allows private companies to sell fuel to Gaza, and the EU is dragging its feet in its role in resuming shipments.
Doesn't sound like a very effective blockade, does it?
The only places I saw the words "fuel blockade" were in a quote from the Palestinian Electric Company, an article from Qatar, and, of course, in the regular Reuters' article on the situation.