Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak announced on Monday that he would authorize resumption of Israeli transfers of the industrial diesel fuel needed to operate Gaza’s power plant – on Wednesday.
In the statement, Barak said that he would only allow the transfer of this type of industrial diesel fuel that is used only for Gaza’s one power plant, but not ordinary diesel used for back-up and stand-by generators or – along with gasoline – used by private vehicles.
An official from Gaza’s Shifa Hospital said the fuel was needed in Gaza today, not tomorrow.
The Gaza power plant is the only source of electricity supply in Gaza City and the central Gaza area, where one-third of the coastal strip’s residents live.
Dr. Rafiq Maliha, director of contracts at the Gaza power plant, said that the plant has already reduced loads, and has been producing only 45 MW of electricity since yesterday, in an effort to maintain operations until tomorrow.
But, he noted, there has been no confirmation of delivery on Wednesday. “We only believe it when we receive it”, Maliha said.
There are unconfirmed indications that employees of the private Israeli company, Dor Alon, which is the sole provider of fuel to Gaza, are now refusing to transfer fuel to Gaza after two of their colleagues were killed on 9 April in an attack from Gaza that breached the security perimeter of the special fuel transfer facility at Nahal Oz.
“We have been informed officially that the fuel will be transferred tomorrow, in two messages – one last night and one this morning”, the Chairman of the Palestinian Energy Authority Dr. Omar Kittaneh said in his office in Ramallah on Tuesday.
He said that “every party in the Palestinian Authority has intervened”, Kittaneh said. “We are representing both the President and the Prime Minister. We want the fuel delivered. It means less punishment for the Palestinian people”.
Dr. Kittaneh confirmed that at the present reduced level of output, there is enough fuel to operate the power plant today and tomorrow only. If no fuel is delivered, he said, the power plant will have to shut down on Wednesday.
Shlomo Dror, the spokesman for Israel’s Defense Ministry, also said on Tuesday that “from tomorrow we intend to deliver fuel for the power plant”. Cooking gas would also be delivered, he added. “We hope Hamas will not shoot again”.
Asked about the Dor Alon employees, Dror said “this is a private company, and there is a situation where people do not want to risk their lives. These Israeli truck drivers are helping the Palestinian people. I can understand that these people are concerned…and there is not much we can tell them”.
Dror said that “We are doing our best, but we are not in the Palestinian area”. He said that the attack last week had been by machine gun from 500 meters away, and that there have also been mortar attacks on all the Israeli-Gaza crossings as well – and, he added, “there is a lot of fuel on these trucks”.
“Yes, there will be more security tomorrow, but all the security cannot help against shooters and mortars – there is a risk”, Dror added. “But we expect the Palestinians to try at least not to attack the drivers”.