Gaza fuel crisis worsens; power plant shuts down

GAZA CITY: Gaza's sole power station shut down again yesterday after running out of fuel, a source at the plant told AFP, as the territory's energy crisis deepened.
"The electricity plant has stopped work because of a lack of fuel," the source said.
The plant has stopped working several times this year as the Gaza Strip lives through its worst-ever energy crisis which has been brought on by a drop in fuel supplies from neighboring Egypt.
Yesterday, a delivery of 30 million liters of Qatari fuel was to have entered the Hamas-run Gaza Strip from Egypt, after being transported through Egypt's Al-Awja crossing into southern Israel, then into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
But yesterday afternoon, Raed Futuh, an official at Kerem Shalom said the delivery had been delayed for the fourth time in three weeks, citing "technical issues."
Last month, Israel gave the green light for the fuel to be transferred through its territory after receiving a request from the Egyptians, an Israeli security official said.
The Gaza power crisis was sparked by a fall in supplies of fuel smuggled in from Egypt, forcing the closure of the coastal territory's sole power plant and causing power cuts of up to 18 hours a day. The situation eased somewhat in April after a deal between Gaza's Hamas government and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which agreed to supply Gaza with fuel purchased from Israel. Palestinians urged foreign governments yesterday to implement the recommendations of an Amnesty International report criticizing Israeli prison conditions and practices. "The Palestinian government calls on the international community to take action to end — and not merely condemn — the torture, detention without trial and other abuses highlighted," the Palestinian government said in a statement.
Amnesty's report "Starved of Justice" criticizes Israel's treatment of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails, in particular the practice of administrative detention, where individuals are held without charge for renewable periods of six months.
The human rights group urged Israel to charge or release all those held under administrative detention orders, and expressed concern about reports of torture as well as practices including denying detainees visits by family or lawyers.
Government spokesman Ghassan Khatib said the report "exposes human rights abuses practiced by Israel... and requires immediate and practical steps to implement its recommendations, the most important of which is to release prisoners immediately or give them a fair trial."


"Amnesty has made clear to the world how Israel breaks international law and breaks agreements with impunity," Khatib added.
Amnesty also urged Israel to end the forcible transfer of Palestinians from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip and to "protect all those in Israeli custody from all forms of torture and other ill-treatment."
Separately, Israeli aircraft struck two targets in the Gaza Strip early yesterday, wounding at least two men, Palestinian sources said.
They said that one man was seriously injured and another moderately hurt in a strike on a Palestinian security facility in the north of the strip. Another raid hit a poultry farm in Rafah, in the south, they said.
FROM: AGENCIES