Mohamed Nasrallah joined in a long queue outside a Gaza bakery
to buy a package of breads worth US$2.5 on Sunday, as Israel has
closed all Gaza Strip crossings and barred fuels, basic food
supplies and medicine into the poor and densely populated
enclave.
Nasrallah, a 45-year-old father of four, exchanged anger with
his countrymen in the queue over the ongoing deteriorating
situation in the Gaza Strip amid a major severe humanitarian crisis
expected within the coming hours, due to the shortage of fuel,
electricity and food.
Gaza's only electrical plant announced on Sunday that it would
shut down later in the day after an Israeli border closure blocked
the entry of fuel that powers it.
In coordination with the Israeli government, Defense Minister
Ehud Barak decided on Friday to close all Gaza Strip crossings,
barring fuels to operate the Gaza power plant, fuels for gas
stations as well as major food products and medical supplies.
"We were told that there will be no fuels for Gaza at all, and
we don't know what to do," said Nasrallah, adding "this means that
life will completely stop in every house, every factory, every
street and every hospital."
The Palestinian Union of Gas Stations announced that around 180
gas stations all-over the enclave had closed down due to shortage
of fuels, while the Palestinian Council of Industry said that 3,900
factories closed down "because they don't have electricity or fuel
to operate their electric generators."
Chief of the Palestinian Committee to Confront Closure,
Jamalal-Khudari, expected that Gaza Strip would witness the first
ever humanitarian crisis "if Israel continues closing the Gaza
Strip and barring fuels for operating the main Gaza power
plant."
"We call on the world, on the Arabs and Muslims to do whatever
they can in order to exert pressure on Israel to stop this policy
of punishing and eliminating 1.5 million Palestinians," said
al-Khudari.
He said that the whole life in Gaza will stop, "if there are no
fuels for Gaza power plant and for vehicles. Consequently, Gaza
Strip will sink into darkness, where hospitals, clinics, factories,
bakeries ... everything will stop."
Gazans have been living with fuel cutbacks, power and supplies
shortages for months. The power plant provides a third of the
electricity for the territory's residents, thus the shutdown would
largely affect the 400,000 people in Gaza City, which houses the
territory's main population.
Palestinian Radio stations in Gaza quoted Israeli army officials
as saying that the decision to keep Gaza under strict and full
closure "is political, and the army has nothing to do in order to
change the decision."
Al-Quds Radio station based in Gaza reported that the Israeli
army said that the closure was one of the painful means to pressure
on the Palestinians to revolt against militants who fire rockets at
Sderot and Ashkelom round the clock to stop it."
Barak's decision came after a week-long of makeshift rockets
attacks carried out by Islamic Hamas movement and other minor
militant groups against Israel, which launched raids into Gaza
since Tuesday and left 37 people dead.
Hamas on Sunday said it had fired over 200 homemade missile
weapons, including 160 Qassam rockets, into southern Israel in six
days as part of its response to an Israeli offensive into the Gaza
Strip.
The Palestinians, however, are divided over the rocket
attacks.
Acting Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said the rockets
"are useless and had only brought disasters to the people."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held that the rockets attacks
were "absurd and an Israel excuse to block any progress in the
peace negotiations."
Their remarks induced criticism from different militant groups
which said that "the rockets are fired to express the status of
anger at the Israeli aggression practiced round the clock against
our people."
Abu O'beida, spokesman of al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas movement's
armed wing, said that "rockets are fired at Israel can't be an
excuse for Israel to punish 1.5 million people, whether we fired
rockets or we didn't fire, Israel is determined to continue its
aggression on our people."
Hamas spokesman in Gaza Sami Abu Zuhri said "if the occupation
wants to stop rockets attacks from Gaza at Israel, it should first
stop its escalation and its massacres against the people."
"Israel doesn't need excuses in order to escalate its aggression
against our people. Israel has been always carrying out aggressive
policy and imposing closure on our people for years and years,"
said Abu Zuhri.
Ordinary Palestinians in Gaza said that both Israel and the
militant groups "are responsible for the suffering of the
people."
"The useless rockets, which had never killed any Israeli, had
just brought us darkness and miserable life," said Husam Abu Fool,
a Palestinian taxi driver who said the fuel in his car would only
be sufficient for another day or two.
"Each side is convinced with what it does, the militants or the
Israeli side. The only side, which really suffers and pays the
price, is the poor civilian," said Abu Fool.
(Xinhua News Agency, January 21, 2008)
