While illegal according to international law, Israel presses ahead in denying Gaza access to fundamental commodities, writes Marian Houk in Jerusalem Israel has been reducing fuel supplies to Gaza for some weeks now, though tightened Israeli sanctions against the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip were supposed to go into effect only a week ago. Gaza is totally dependent on Israeli supplies of fuel -- including gas for cooking, gasoline for automobiles, and diesel to operate generators, hospitals, and public utilities, including the main Gaza power plant that supplies much of Gaza's electricity. So far, the supply of water to Gaza is the only one of three vital commodities controlled entirely by Israel that has been left untouched. A group of Israeli human rights organisations appealed to the Israeli High Court to prevent fuel and electricity cuts to Gaza. The fuel cuts were authorised, however, and went into supposed legal effect 2 December. A decision on electricity cuts is expected soon. Dor Alon, a private Israeli commercial company, has an exclusive contract from the Israeli Ministry of Finance to deliver fuel to the Gaza Strip. Dor Alon has cut off fuel supplies to Gaza four times since the spring of 2006, following Hamas's victory in Palestinian legislative elections and the installation of a Palestinian national unity government that included Hamas ministers. Acting on its own, on the basis of its interpretation of the Israeli cabinet's decision to label Gaza a "hostile territory" or "enemy entity", Dor Alon seems to have started cuts in fuel ahead of time, three weeks ago. When questioned, Dor Alon referred Al-Ahram Weekly to their public relations agency in Tel Aviv, SMG, who then said that details of the situation -- including quantities of fuel being delivered or withheld -- are "not open information". A refusal this week by Gaza's Union of Gas Service Stations to accept reduced amounts of fuel from Israel brought traffic in the Gaza Strip to a complete halt. The Gaza Union indicated that it could not handle disputes over how to allocate the little fuel available, and said that it did not want to become the instrument of Israeli sanctions in Gaza. Mojahed Salama of the Palestinian Ministry of Finance's Gas and Petroleum Authority was at the Erez Crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Wednesday to negotiate with gas station owners. He indicated in a telephone interview that he had offered to release the entire Palestinian Authority fuel reserve in Gaza, but said in exasperation, "they refused to take the quantity offered, and they refused to pay." By Thursday evening, however, the Gaza Union of Gas Service Stations had reportedly reversed its position, and was accepting fuel. On Monday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a joint appeal with UNRWA (the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees) addressed all parties "to ensure that in the future all health facilities in Gaza are supplied with the appropriate amount of electricity and fuel to provide fully functional services". The two UN agencies said in their joint statement that there were several factors involved in this latest crisis: "The fuel shortage has been the consequence of a number of factors, primarily restrictions in supply by Israeli authorities, as well as a strike by Gaza fuel station owners and the lack of coordination with the Palestinian Authority [PA] in payment arrangements." Later, on Monday, Ambrogio Manenti, head of WHO's Jerusalem office, indicated in a telephone interview that the fuel supply crisis that loomed last week had apparently been temporarily solved via interim payments and better coordination. But the gradual reduction in supplies authorised by the Israeli cabinet will still affect the situation, he indicated. The cut in fuel deliveries is also beginning to have an impact on the main Gaza power plant. Gaza's plant was purposely destroyed in June 2006 by an Israeli air strike after Israel's Corporal Gilad Shalit was captured near the Kerem Shalom Crossing in south-eastern Gaza in a Palestinian resistance operation said to have been in retaliation for the deaths of members of a Gazan family blown up on a beach while picnicking. Shalit is still being held somewhere in Gaza. Gaza's power plant has been only partially rebuilt. After months of difficulties, emergency measures were eventually put into place to restore services and to supplement the Gaza power plant's capacity: the Israel Electric Company has since been supplying at least 50 per cent of Gaza's electricity, while Egypt provides 17 MegaWatts through a temporary line passing through Rafah. Unlike Dor Alon, the Israel Electric Company has maintained that it has contractual obligations to continue supplying the commodity it trades to Gaza. Both Dor Alon and the Israel Electric Company are being paid by the Israeli Ministry of Finance from withheld Palestinian revenue. These blocked Palestinian funds are taxes and customs duties collected under the terms of the Oslo Accords on behalf of the Palestinian Authority by Israel, but now retained -- ostensibly due to Hamas's 2006 electoral victory -- and only sporadically released to the now Fatah-controlled PA. Omar Kittaneh, head of the Palestinian Energy Authority in Ramallah, says he has not been contacted by Israeli human rights groups that are seeking to block fuel and electricity cuts in Israeli courts, adding: "If they want to ask us to make a statement, we will do so." The gradual reduction in the delivery of diesel fuel to operate Gaza's power plant that began three weeks ago is in the range of 15-20 per cent, according to Kittaneh. The major impact so far has been on the stored fuel reserves. "Until now, we're coping, and the reduction is not affecting our production. But if it continues, in about one month's time we'll be operating only on those reserves." At this rate, he says, the main Gaza power plant will be unable to operate in about six weeks. Meanwhile, the European Union has continued paying some $10 million per month for the diesel fuel that is supposed to operate the Gaza power plant, Dr Kittaneh indicated. Egypt cannot offer an immediate solution to Gaza's electricity problem. Given that the line capacity of the temporary solution running through Rafah is full, it cannot increase the amount of electricity it provides. However, Kittaneh indicates, Egypt has agreed to build new lines with a capacity to carry up to 300 MegaWatts of electricity. "We're expecting the line to be in operation at the beginning of 2009," he said. This could theoretically be enough to supply all the electricity needs of the Gaza Strip, though Kittaneh noted carefully that, "there are no commitments yet about the amount of electricity that will be supplied, only about the line capacity." Tenders will be issued soon, the cost of the new lines paid by a $32 million dollar grant from the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. These lines will not be simple feeder lines, which send electricity in only one direction, Kittaneh explained. They will be two-way lines capable of transmitting electricity in either direction over interconnected grids, allowing interconnectivity. These interconnectivity lines will run from Rafah in the Gaza Strip to Rafah in the Egyptian Sinai -- two sides of a provincial town that has been separated by war and occupation. An eventual connection from the West Bank to the Jordanian grid has also been approved, Kittaneh indicated. At a meeting of Arab League ministers responsible for electricity last March -- soon after the formation of the national unity PA government following Saudi mediation between Fatah and Hamas -- this decision was approved by all seven countries who are part of an interlinked grid of seven regional electric authorities (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq and Turkey). At the forthcoming donor meeting on 17 December in Paris, the PA will be presenting a five- year "master plan" for reviving Palestinian infrastructure and economy, including a request for some $200 million to develop the electricity sector, Kittaneh indicated. Converting the Gaza power plant from diesel fuel to natural gas would save a lot of money -- over $45 million per year at its present reduced level of operation, and almost double that amount were it to operate at full capacity. Gaza's own offshore natural gas discoveries were supposed to help fuel the power plant, but negotiations concerning the exploitation and marketing of this gas have been complicated, and the gas is not expected to be available before 2011 at the earliest. In the meantime, the World Bank has recently suggested that the Palestinians might consider buying gas from Egypt -- a pipeline could be in place by 2009 -- pending development of Gaza's offshore gas.
