Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
Voice of America is funded by the US Federal Government and content it
exclusively produces is in the public domain.
January 22, 2008

Israeli Blockade Eased as Fuel, Supply Trucks Enter Gaza
--------------------------------------------------------

http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1B0122C:A6F02AD83191E160F3D2D0C2C2F74E565C6F54A6CF9DC2CA& Officials say they
will allow 2.2 million liters of fuel into Gaza - enough fuel for
power plant to generate electricity for about a week Israel has
allowed a one-day delivery of food and fuel to the Gaza Strip,
partially lifting a nearly week-long blockade of the territory. VOA's
Jim Teeple has details from our Jerusalem bureau.







Palestinian workers walk as fuel tanker arrives at Gaza's main power
plant in Nusseirat, central Gaza Strip, 22 Jan 2008Israeli officials
say they are allowing 2.2 million liters of fuel into Gaza - enough
fuel for the Gaza power plant to generate electricity for about a
week. The plant ran out of fuel on Sunday, shutting off power to Gaza
City.

There were also deliveries of diesel fuel for hospital generators,
cooking gas, food, and medicine - the first such deliveries since last
Thursday when Israel sealed its borders with Gaza in response to
Palestinian rocket attacks against the southern Israeli town of
Sderot.

U.N. officials who had warned of an imminent humanitarian crisis
welcomed the decision, but they say the threat of future closures
makes it impossible to plan for reliable delivery of humanitarian
supplies to Gaza's population. Chris Gunness is a spokesman for the
United Nations in Jerusalem.

"This drip-drip, on-off, here-today gone-tomorrow policy of the
Israeli establishment does not allow to plan or sustain a human
development humanitarian operation to over one million people," he
said.

Israeli officials say their policy of sealing Gaza's borders worked,
saying Qassam rocket attacks against Sderot virtually ceased after the
power went out in Gaza. Ariyeh Mekel is Israel's Foreign Ministry
spokesman.

"What we will do is monitor the situation, and we will monitor two
things; the number of Qassams or attacks on Israel," said Mekel. "We
will monitor this, but we will also monitor the humanitarian situation
in Gaza because we do not want a humanitarian crisis."

Mekel says those two conditions will determine whether Israel allows
more supplies into Gaza or not.


.