E.U., U.N. Allowed to Truck In Limited Supplies on Fifth Day of Blockade
By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
GAZA CITY, Jan. 22 -- Israel eased its blockade of the Gaza Strip for at least a day Tuesday, allowing the European Union and United Nations to truck in the first food shipments in five days, along with fuel to restart the Palestinian territory's idled power plant.
Gaza, which has a population of 1.5 million, had been cut off since Friday, when Israel closed entry points in response to an increase in rocket barrages from the strip last week. About half a million Gaza residents were without power for most of Sunday and Monday after the territory's power plant exhausted its fuel reserves.
Some water plants also ran out of fuel, leaving 40 percent of Gaza's people without running water, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Tuesday. Equipment failures during the blockade forced Gaza sewage plants to pump almost 8 million gallons of untreated sewage into the Mediterranean, the U.N. organization said.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that she had expressed concern to Israel.
"Nobody wants innocent Gazans to suffer, and so we have spoken to the Israelis about the importance of not allowing a humanitarian crisis to unfold there," Rice told reporters as she traveled to Berlin.
Israel has said since it began the blockade that it would allow in shipments only after individual review. Palestinians launched at least 17 rockets at Israel from Gaza on Tuesday, causing no damage, the Israeli military said.
Israel gave the E.U. permission to bring in a week's worth of industrial fuel for the power plant Tuesday. The plant's director, Derar Abu Sissi, told news agencies that workers restarted one of the facility's two turbines as the fuel arrived, restoring electricity to outlying areas of Gaza City.
Israel said it would also allow in 132,000 gallons of diesel to run generators, as well as some cooking gas, food and medicine. Gas stations in Gaza have run out of fuel since the blockade began, and Israel said it did not intend to immediately allow in more gasoline for vehicles.
A U.N. refugee agency operating in the Palestinian territories said it was able to bring seven trucks of rice into Gaza on Tuesday.
However, protests that broke out at Gaza's border with Egypt led Israel to close its Kerem Shalom crossing earlier than planned Tuesday, delaying shipments of rice, milk and nylon bags.
The protests occurred at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. Scores of Gaza residents rallied there throughout the afternoon, demanding that Egypt open the crossing to let in supplies. Many of the protesters were female members of the armed Hamas movement, who climbed atop the jeeps of Egyptian security forces and waved Palestinian flags. Egyptian police used clubs and water cannons to drive back the protesters.
Special correspondent Samuel Sockol in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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