Ma'an – The Israeli High Court of Justice ruled on Friday that Israel's plan to restrict the supply of fuel to the Gaza Strip can go ahead as planned, but said it would give its ruling regarding a similar plan to partially cut off Gaza's electricity in 12 days. The court was asked to rule on the proposed measures after human rights groups filed numerous petitions challenging the legality of imposing such restrictions. The measure is meant to stop the flow of homemade projectiles from the Gaza Strip into Israeli towns.
The Palestinian General Petroleum Corporation and the finance ministry of the de facto government in the Gaza Strip released a statement on Friday, saying they hold Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad responsible for the fuel crisis in the Gaza Strip.
According to the statement, the crisis originated from Fayyad's government haggling over payments owed to the Israeli fuel supplier, Dor, who supply fuel to the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, the statement alleged that payments owed to Paz, the Israeli company that supplies fuel to the West Bank, had been paid.
The statement accused the West Bank-based government of paying fuel money collected from Gaza Strip companies to the West Bank fuel supplier. The ministry and the Petroleum Corporation said that Fayyad's government had received full payment for the fuel to be supplied to the Gaza Strip, but had deliberately avoided paying the Gaza Strip's fuel supplier.
The de facto finance ministry highlighted that fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip have been reduced at an unprecedented rate, causing further hardship to the poverty-stricken coastal region. The ministry announced last Wednesday that only 90 thousand litres of diesel, 20 thousand litres of gasoline and 3 truckloads of gas are being supplied per day.