Enlarge imageBy Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - A U.N. agency said on Monday it would have to suspend food distribution to 860,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as early as Wednesday unless Israel eased the border blockade it imposed on the Hamas-controlled territory.
Other international groups said that Gaza hospitals would run out of drugs and generator fuel in a few days unless Israel allowed goods through border crossings closed on Friday in what Israel said was a bid to make militants stop rocket attacks.
"Because of a shortage of nylon for plastic bags and fuel for vehicles and generators, on Wednesday or Thursday we are going to have to suspend our food distribution programme to 860,000 people in Gaza if the present situation continues," said Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
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The European Union, which funds fuel for Gaza’s now-idle main power plant, said it understood Israel’s need to defend itself against cross-border rockets but called the closure "collective punishment" and said it should be lifted.
"There is no fuel, meaning there is no work," said Abu Mahmoud, a fisherman. "We have seen bad times before, but never worse than these days."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, reporting to his party on a telephone conversation with a concerned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said he assured him that "we will not allow a humanitarian crisis in Gaza".
But in broadcast remarks, Olmert said that with rockets continuing to hit towns in southern Israel, he had no intention of letting Gazans "live comfortable and pleasant lives".
"As far as I’m concerned, all the residents of Gaza can walk and have no fuel for their cars, because they have a murderous terrorist regime that doesn’t allow people in the south of Israel to live in peace," Olmert said.
He promised humanitarian aid would reach "hospitals, clinics, young children and helpless people" but did not say when.
Residents of the impoverished territory awoke to nearly traffic-free streets and shuttered shops because of the petrol shortage. The main power plant shut down on Sunday after Israel blocked fuel supplies, plunging much of Gaza City into darkness.
INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE
Gaza militants have vowed to continue their rocket fire.
The West Bank-based Palestinian government called in a statement for international pressure on Israel to stop its "inhuman and unjust siege policy" in the Gaza Strip.
"Israel is rendering (peace) negotiations a useless process," the statement said, but stopped short of any threat to suspend Israeli-Palestinian talks renewed after a U.S.-sponsored international peace conference in Annapolis in November.
European Union and United Nations officials said both organisations were pressing Israel to allow immediate supplies of fuel and medicine to the Gaza Strip, where 1.5 million live.
"I have made clear that I am against this collective punishment of the people of Gaza," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement.
The Israeli blockade has also stopped U.N. aid shipments including food and other humanitarian supplies. UNRWA estimated it had two months’ worth of supplies stored in Gaza.
EU officials said hospitals, many now using generators, were running out of fuel to keep the power on.
Despite its tough public line, Israel has not cut off its direct supply of electricity to the Gaza Strip. Egypt provides power to the southern part of the territory.
(Additional reporting by Adam Entous in Jerusalem and Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah, Writing by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Editing by Tim Pearce)
