Gaza lights up as Israel eases fuel blockade
(Adds discussion at U.N., UNRWA interview)
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Israel resumed fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip's main power plant on Tuesday, offering limited respite from a blockade that had plunged much of the Hamas-ruled territory into darkness and touched off international protests.
Only 13 truckloads of food and medicine entered Gaza on Tuesday, short of the 50 Israel had agreed to, but Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said the rest would cross in the coming days.
At the United Nations in New York, Israeli and Palestinian envoys traded accusations of blame in the Security Council for the recent wave of violence in Gaza, which threatens to torpedo a fragile Middle East peace process.
John Ging, who heads the leading U.N. aid agency in Gaza, said Israel's decision to let some supplies into the coastal strip was a first step but would not be sufficient to head off a humanitarian disaster.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said earlier she had voiced her concerns to Israel, which has argued that sealing the borders could make the Palestinians stop rocket salvoes being fired into its territory from Gaza.
"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 travelling with her to Berlin.
In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would press ahead with peace talks with Israel but "continue in our efforts to see this siege fully lifted". He reiterated his view that rocket fire from Gaza was "pointless".
Israel gave the European Union permission to bring a week's worth of EU-funded industrial fuel for the generating plant, which was shut down on Sunday after Israel imposed its closure.
The power plant resumed operations after the fuel began arriving, plant director Derar Abu Sissi said. EU officials said approximately 700,000 litres arrived on Tuesday and another 1.5 million litres would follow on Wednesday and Thursday.
"In terms of the supplies coming in today, welcome as they are, they are nothing but the first step," said Ging, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza.
Unless Israel agrees to open the border crossings to aid shipments on a permanent basis, "we will face another disaster very quickly," he told Reuters in an interview.
BORDER PROTEST
Chanting pro-Hamas slogans, hundreds of Palestinian protesters stormed the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. It has been mostly closed since the Islamist group took control of Gaza in June.
One Egyptian police officer was shot and wounded, and nine others were hurt by stone-throwing and in scuffles, security sources said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity. There was no immediate word on any Palestinian casualties.
The European Union and international agencies denounced Israel's closure of Gaza as illegal "collective punishment" of its 1.5 million residents, many of whom depend on foreign aid.
"Our approach now is to assess what is acutely lacking, and permit imports on that basis," Israeli Defence Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror said.
Israel insisted that conditions in Gaza had not reached crisis point and said its measures were a justified reaction to rocket and mortar attacks by Hamas and other factions.
Israeli officials said future aid shipments would hinge on regular assessments of Gaza's humanitarian needs and on the number of rockets fired by militants.
Militants launched at least 17 rockets at Israel from Gaza on Tuesday, causing no damage, after 45 salvoes on Friday and Saturday, the military said. (Additional reporting by Adam Entous in Jerusalem, Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah, and the Geneva and Cairo bureaux; writing by Dan Williams and Jeffrey Heller; editing by Andrew Roche)
