UNRWA, the United Nations’ agency for Palestinian refugees, yesterday evening suspended its operations in the Gaza Strip citing a shortage of fuel.
The suspension means that 650,000 refugees will go without essential services, including food aid.
Israel has refused to allow fuel for automobiles into Gaza since Palestinian fighters attacked the Nahal Oz fuel terminal on 9 April, killing two Israelis.
Shipments of industrial fuel and cooking gas have been severely limited.
Israel closed the Nahal Oz crossing again on Monday.
UNRWA only resumed distribution of aid last Tuesday after a four-day shutdown also caused by the fuel crisis.
Israel began a blockade of the Gaza Strip last June, allowing virtually no Palestinians to enter or leave the Strip, and severely limiting vital shipments of food, fuel, medicine and other goods.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus attacked World Food Programme (WFP) warehouses on Sunday, demanding that they have access to donated flour that the Palestinian Health Ministry says is unfit for human consumption.
The Ma’an agency said yesterday that it had received official laboratory documents which indicated that the flour was edible.
Its sources in the WFP told Ma’an that 21,000 tons of flour had been recently donated to the Palestinian people. Four thousand tons went to Nablus, but the Palestinian Health Ministry refused to distribute the flour to the residents on the pretext that the flour did not meet Palestinian standards.
The international sources told Ma’an that the flour exceeded Palestinian standards.
A Fatah-affiliated Palestinian lawmaker from Nablus, Najat Abu Bakr, warned of what she called ‘hunger rebellion’ in Nablus, accusing the Palestinian officials of making a false ruling regarding the quality of flour.
She asked why the same flour was distributed in the rest of the West Bank if it was banned in Nablus.
She appealed to Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas to order the distribution of the flour in order to ease the suffering of Nablus citizens, especially in light of an overall rise in food prices.
On Sunday, residents of the eastern neighbourhood of Nablus tried to break into the storehouses in an attempt to access the quarantined flour. Police intervened and dispersed the crowds. Residents said they would take the flour even if it did not meet Palestinian standards.
Former Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Naser Addin Ash-Sha’ir sent a message to current Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Health Minister Abu Mughli asking them to bring the flour crisis to an end.
His message said that he had laboratory reports which proved the flour was absolutely edible and safe for human consumption. He added that more than 1,700 families in the Nablus district had used the same flour without a single complaint regarding its quality.
