The Gaza Strip is inching towards a total collapse of essential services as fuel supplies from the tunnels beneath the border between Gaza and Egypt have reportedly ground to a halt.
With the blockaded enclave's only power plant shut down for long hours daily, the 1.6 million Palestinians in Gaza are being affected across the board, with impending life threatening consequences in health services.Then why did they stop taking the fuel from Israel?
Since Israel put Gaza under total blockade in 2007, only limited amounts of fuel for Gaza's power plants were allowed to enter the enclave, prompting the government in Gaza to procure fuel from Egypt through the Rafah tunnels.
...Oxfam partners Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and Al Mezan have both stressed the responsibility and obligations of Israel as the occupying power, to provide for the wellbeing of the civilian population under occupation, with international humanitarian law requiring it to allow the passage of fuel for the Gaza power plant. Israeli restrictions on fuel supplies via the overland crossings, imposed in 2007, caused massive shortages, leading the authority in Gaza to seek alternate solutions in fuel supplied through the tunnels.
There was one week on November, 2010 when Israel transferred over 1.7 million liters to the Gaza power plant. Normally it transferred about a million liters a week. Then Hamas started refusing to get reliable amounts of fuel from Israel and chose instead to get smuggled fuel from Gaza. And now Oxfam is blaming Israel for Hamas' refusal to take in millions of liters of fuel that Israel is more than willing to provide!
Not only that, even though the press release was published today, Oxfam still refuses to complain about Hamas' refusal to accept fuel from Egypt going through Kerem Shalom!
Oxfam has the story exactly wrong. Israel is willing to provide fuel and Hamas is refusing to accept it. Yet the word "Hamas" is not to be found in the entire press release.
Oxfam's press release here is proof positive that this so-called "human rights organization" has less interest in the well-being of Gazans than in slamming Israel for a problem that Hamas is wholly responsible for.
This is more than just bias. This is evidence that Oxfam is actively working to promote Hamas' false narrative of the problem. And when NGOs support the terrorists against the free world, we have a problem.