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Fuel Supplies Resumed in Gaza After Days of Cutoff
After days of cutoff in oil and gas supplies to the Gaza Strip, gas stations in Gaza city were reopened Friday and all kinds of petrol and diesel were available.
The gas supplies were resumed Thursday evening as 400 tons of liquefied gas were imported, double the ordinary daily amount before the eruption of the Israeli-Palestinian clashes in late September, Lu'ai Arnas, director of the Palestinian General Corporation of Petroleum (PGCP), told Xinhua.
However, he pointed out that the Gaza Strip was still suffering from a gas shortage of 2,000 tons to meet the daily demands.
The PGCP imported on Friday 1 million liters of fuels, doubling the ordinary daily level before the current clashes, Arnas added.
Israel resumed fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip under media pressures as the halt of fuel supplies created a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza, said the official.
Mohsen Al-Khazendar, owner of a gas station in northern Gaza City told Xinhua that his firm imported 6,500 gas cylinders, 6,000 of them have been sold since Friday morning.
Al-Khazendar, the major gas distributor in Gaza, said his station witnessed some disorder Friday afternoon as thousands of people were crowded inside and outside the station to buy gas.
The disorder came to a halt after 35 Palestinian policemen stepped in, he said, noting that the gas quotas cover just 20 percent of the Gaza market demand.
The gas available is very limited as the gas deficit, starting 23 days ago, has amounted to 40,000 cylinders, he added. Al- Khazendar station needs 20,000 cylinders to strike some balance on the market.
As for the fuel shortage in the towns of in the south of the Gaza Strip, Al-Khazendar said it would not last for a long time.
The Israeli side could cut off the oil and gas supplies again if the violent clashes continued or escalated, he warned.
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