The head of the Israel Defense Forces' Coordination and Liaison Administration at the Erez checkpoint on the Israel-Gaza border said over the weekend that Israel consistently streams fuel to the Gaza Strip while Palestinian actions have caused an initiated fuel crisis.
Colonel Nir Peres said that Gaza's closed fuel depots and excruciating lines at gas stations were the direct result a carefully planned and publicized Hamas campaign to create a fuel crisis, which stems from the group's refusal to transfer available fuel from the Israeli Nahal Oz fueling terminal into the Strip.
According to Peres, as of this weekend, the fuel containers on the Palestinian side of the fueling terminal contained some 190,000 liters of gasoline and over 800,000 liters of diesel fuel.
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On Saturday, the director of Gaza's only power plant said he would have to shut it down in two to three days unless Israel resumed fuel shipments.
Israel halted supplies after Gaza militants attacked the Nahal Oz fuel depot on the Gaza-Israel border last week and killed two Israeli workers.
Israeli defense officials indicated, however, that the cutoff would not last past the weekend.
The power plant's fuel reserves have been low in recent months, after Israel restricted fuel supplies in hopes of forcing militants to halt rocket attacks from Gaza.
Power plant director Rafiq Maliha said Saturday he only has two to three days worth of fuel left to run the plant. The plant shut down once before, after Israeli halted fuel shipments for several days following a barrage of rocket attacks from Gaza.
On Thursday, Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials said Hamas seizes half the fuel Israel sends to the Gaza Strip and uses it in part for its military wing's vehicles.
Hussein al-Sheikh, a PA official, confirmed to Haaretz that Hamas seizes half the amount of fuel transferred by Israel to the Strip. The amount confiscated is approximately 400,000 of the 800,000 liters of diesel transferred to Gaza weekly and intended for uses such as generators, hospitals, water pumps and sewage pumps. In contrast, Hamas uses this fuel for militant purposes.
Israeli sources said Hamas was preventing the pumping of all the fuel from the Nahal Oz depot's reserves and funneling it to the Strip's gas stations. In the past week, only a small amount of fuel and diesel was pumped from the depot, leaving some 820,000 liters of diesel and 200,000 of gas in the depots, they said.
"Hamas is trying to create a false fuel crisis in the Gaza Strip," a senior government source said. "The simulated strike by Gaza's gas-station owners is also organized by Hamas. They want to create long lines for gas and a feeling that Israel is tightening the siege on Gaza, although this is not the case," he said.
Israel has discussed the situation with European Union officials in charge of financing Gaza's fuel.
Israeli sources said they were concerned that in addition to fuel, Hamas would try to create the impression of a food shortage, although food supplies were sufficient.
Also Thursday, a hair-dressing salon in the center of Gaza City was blown up before dawn, apparently by religious zealots.
