Gazans' latest crisis: fuel cuts By IBRAHIM BARZAK and DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writers APR 8,08
JEBALIYA, Gaza Strip - Muin Abdul Ghani sleeps in his car, parked among dozens of other vehicles at a gas station, unwilling to give up his place in line in his desperate scramble for gasoline. It's one way Gaza's embattled 1.4 million residents are adjusting to their newest crisis: a protest by gas station owners who have refused to sell the small amounts they have in stock or accept future shipments after months of restricted Israeli fuel supplies.
Gaza residents also wrestle with high black market prices and overstuffed taxis. They have turned to bicycles, liquid gas for their cars and homemade fuel recipes to try to deal with the shortage.Israel has restricted fuel supplies since September to pressure Palestinian militants into halting rocket fire at neighboring Israeli communities, but with no apparent results.We are like street dogs looking for bones, said Abdul Ghani, a 44-year-old taxi driver, smoking by his car at a gas station in the northern Gazan town of Jebaliya. Around 200 cars, taxis, delivery trucks and farm machinery vehicles were parked there, waiting for the gas station to distribute rationed supplies. Some drivers abandoned their cars, while others sold their places in line.Abdul Ghani expected to wait at least another day for a day's worth of fuel. Gaza's Hamas government rations out fuel, only allowing residents to take four gallons at a time.Israel supplies around 19,000 gallons of gasoline a week, 8 percent of Gaza's needs, and 200,000 gallons of diesel fuel — 30 percent of Gaza's needs, Palestinians charge.
Israeli army Col. Nir Press, commander of the military liaison unit, countered that Israel is supplying Gaza with more than enough fuel for its basic needs, but the Islamic Hamas movement is using some of it for its own purposes, including fuel for vehicles that ferry rockets to be fired at Israel.I really don't think that this is a crisis, Press said. They want to create an appearance of a crisis.The Hamas government takes around half of Gaza's reduced supplies for hospitals, municipal services, water wells and sewage pumps, said Ziad Zaza, a senior Hamas government official.
Protesting the shortages, gas station owners rebelled on Monday, refusing to sell what they have in stock or accept future shipments.
Gaza residents are seeking their own solutions. Drivers pay black market prices for siphoned-off fuel. One taxi driver purchased four gallons for $33 from a sneaky gas station employee. Four gallons sells at the pump for $27.It was a good deal. We just want to keep our business running," said the driver, who asked not to be named because the Hamas government forbids black market fuel trading. Other black market traders offer four-gallon tanks for $55.
Reflecting the shortages, shared taxis that once fit seven people are now piling in 10, sometimes 15 people.On a Gaza City road where shared cabs pick up university students, men and women stood in unhappy clumps waiting for rides.Heba Mina, a 22-year-old student, was waiting for a ride to her central Gaza Strip home. It used to take seconds to get a cab. Now the wait is longer.Mina, who wears a full face veil and long black robe, now squeezes into cabs filled with men, once forbidden by conservative Gaza Muslim etiquette.It's embarrassing, but I'm desperate, Mina said. This week, she missed two morning classes because she couldn't find transport on time. A Hamas radio station encouraged listeners to call in with suggestions for transportation alternatives to dodge the fuel restrictions. My friend and I hired a donkey for $5 and tied it next to the university because we couldn't find a taxi, boasted one caller.
The scarcity is good business for some.
Wael Awad, a 28-year-old car mechanic makes a $137 profit converting a cars to accept liquid gas rather than gasoline. Liquid gas is more plentiful in Gaza. Since fuel restrictions began, he's converted at least one car a day. Before the crisis, he said he converted two a week. Other Gaza residents are mixing kerosene with used cooking oil to power their cars, though it's not clear whether they run. Fawzi Hisi, 25, a Hamas policeman, dusted off his childhood bike two months ago. I couldn't find a taxi to get to work, Hisi said. He's lucky. His colleagues can't afford new bicycles, but can't find secondhand bikes, which are now in short supply. Hisi said the fuel shortage wouldn't shake his loyalty to the Hamas government. I'll walk if I have to. We won't die from a fuel shortage, he said.
Israeli missile kills Palestinian militant in Gaza: medics APR 8,08
GAZA CITY (AFP) - An Israeli missile strike in the northern Gaza Strip killed one Palestinian militant on Tuesday, medics said. The man was identified as Awad al-Dahrawi, 37, a member of the Popular Resistance Committees. Another two people were wounded in the blast at a cemetery east of the northern town of Jabaliya.An army spokeswoman confirmed the strike, which she said took place near the border fence between Israel and the Hamas-ruled territory during an army operation.Palestinians opened fire and the force returned fire and identified hitting a group of gunmen. A Kalashnikov (assault) rifle and an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) launcher were found on the body of the person hit, she added.
Since Israel and the Palestinians formally revived peace talks in November at least 369 people have been killed, most of them Gaza militants, according to an AFP tally.At least 6,332 people have been killed since the eruption of the latest Palestinian uprising in 2000, according to an AFP count, the vast majority of them Palestinians.
Sirens sound across Israel in civil defence drill Tue Apr 8, 4:14 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Sirens sounded across Israel on Tuesday as part of a massive civil defence exercise aimed at preparing the country for an air or missile attack involving non-conventional weapons.
Children in kindergartens, primary schools, and secondary schools were ordered into shelters and told to stay there for one hour, while in the north there was a simulated missile attack on the town of Nazareth.It is time to check that you and your family are ready to face any emergency and that you have found the safest place in your home and your workplace, a message broadcast on radio said.
The five-day exercise is aimed at preparing Israel for a possible concerted attack by Syria, the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and the Islamist Hamas and is the largest of its kind in the country's history.The Israeli tourism ministry distributed flyers to hotels in Jerusalem, packed with visitors, to inform them that the sirens were just a test.The nationwide drills have raised tensions with Israel's northern neighbours Syria and Lebanon, which have gone on alert for fear the exercise might be concealing a military operation.Israel has said the exercise is purely to test civilian defences.
Bush to join Mideast peace summit in May: Palestinians APR 8,08
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will meet US President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at a peace summit in Egypt in May, a Palestinian official said. A meeting will be held in mid-May in Sharm el-Sheikh between George W. Bush, Mahmud Abbas and Ehud Olmert during Bush's visit to the region to follow up on negotiations over the peace process, the official said on condition of anonymity.He said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak would also attend the talks.The summit will aim at furthering the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which was revived at a US-hosted conference in November but has made little progress since then.Olmert and Abbas relaunched face-to-face talks on Monday after a seven-week hiatus and again vowed to try to reach an agreement by the end of 2008.Bush, who visited the Middle East in January, is expected back in the region in May to mark the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding.
