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Official: Settlement on Palestinian Land •
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Gazans' Latest Crisis: Fuel Cuts
The Associated Press
Tuesday 08 April 2008
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.
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Official: Settlement on Palestinian Land
The Associated Press
Tuesday 08 April 2008
Jerusalem - A top Israeli official has reportedly said that a large Jewish
settlement in the West Bank was built on private Palestinian land.
The Haaretz daily reports that the comments by Vice Premier Haim Ramon confirm
that construction of the Ofra settlement violated a 1979 Supreme Court order.
Haaretz said in its report Tuesday that Ramon got his information about the
settlement from Israel's defense ministry. It says this information could have
legal implications for Palestinians seeking compensation for land claims.
The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank for a future independent state.
About 270,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements.
Haaretz says that Ramon made the remarks to a parliamentary committee in February.
It wasn't clear why the remarks were only made public on Tuesday.
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