Egyptian authorities have restricted the amount of Qatari fuel entering the Gaza Strip through an Egyptian crossing with Israel, an Egyptian source said Monday.And Hamas is now also blaming Egypt, not Israel, for the current fuel shortage, saying that it has documented Egyptian fuel trucks arriving late to the Al Ouja crossing while Israeli fuel trucks are waiting to receive it.
While the Al-Ouja crossing in Egypt's northern Sinai has the capacity for ten trucks of fuel per day, Egypt only permits six trucks to cross, the official said, noting that this amount cannot meet Gaza's energy needs.
Hamas charges that Egypt comes up with new excuses every day for delays and problems, blaming transportation issues, or security issues, or a lack of vehicles. In a statement, Hamas said that it has heard many excuses from Egypt that all indicate that this is a deliberate policy to restrict the amount of fuel going to Gaza.
Moreover, Hamas charged that the amount of fuel that Egypt is claiming to be sending is not matching up with the amount that Israel says it is receiving and shipping to Gaza, demanding an investigation and implying that Egypt is skimming some of the fuel. Interestingly, Hamas is not blaming Israel for doing anything wrong.
The amount of fuel entering Gaza has not been enough to keep the power plants running at close to their capacity.
Another Hamas spokesman decided to blame the PA instead, saying that they are behind the power crisis and charging that they are stopping the implementation of agreements to build power lines to Gaza from Egypt.
Because of these issue, Hamas is bizarrely threatening to not accept fuel from Egypt altogether, presumably to pressure Cairo into opening up Rafah when the photos of Gaza kids with candles go over the wires.