Hamas backs off blaming Egypt for fuel crisis - blames Israel, PA instead

Hamas Gaza political leader Mahmoud Zahar has distanced himself from statements made a Gaza official recently that blamed Egyptian intelligence for Gaza's artificial fuel crisis.

An Egyptian officlal blasted Hamas in a newspaper interview, saying "the Hamas government instigated a crisis with Egypt to escape from its responsibilities towards the sector ...they make up and promote false information by claiming that Egypt was behind the electricity crisis in Gaza in order to deceive and mislead the Palestinian citizens."

Zahar, sensing that Hamas' relations with Egypt are not in good shape, instead decided to blame - who else? - Israel, and the PA as well. He said that "the Israeli occupation authority bears the responsibility of 100% of the crises within the Gaza Strip, because the Israeli occupation legally responsible for providing the Gaza Strip with supplies, stressing that the Authority in Ramallah owns the electricity company, which is responsible for providing fuel."

This is of course a baldfaced lie, since Hamas has been refusing to accept fuel via Kerem Shalom that Israel has been willing to provide.

The same official denied that Egypt ever agreed to ship fuel through Rafah, saying that a jerry-rigged pipeline there is too dangerous. If there is only one mistake it could explode and kill the hundreds of people who use that crossing every day.

He also claimed that Hamas did agree to have fuel shipped temporarily through Kerem Shalom, something that Hamas spokesman Abu Marzouk denied.