Jerusalem, Israel
Forget Scotland – the fuel crisis we’ve really got to keep our eyes on is in the Gaza Strip. Israel stopped supplying fuel to the Hamas-controlled region a few days ago, in retaliation to an attack by Palestinian militants. The resultant shortages are causing many Gazan services – including bakeries and farms – to cease operating. And there’s a worry that Israel isn’t meeting its obligations to the territory that it withdrew from in 2005.
It’s a crisis that brings the traditional Gazan balancing act into stark relief. Both sides – Hamas and Israel – are weighing different priorities against each other, and hoping that the scales will tip in their favour.
First, Hamas. They’re far from blameless in all this. After all, they’ve been behind several recent attacks on fuel depots outside of Gaza – hardly the kind of action that the authority in charge of Gaza should take if it wants its people to have a regular fuel supply.
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