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Gaza grinds to a halt amid Israeli blockade

Olmert stands firm over lockdown, EUslams Israel's 'collective punishment'

AFP, Gaza City/ Brussels
Gaza endured a fourth day of hardship yesterday as Israel vowed to maintain a punishing blockade in response to rocket fire from the Hamas-run territory, despite increasing international concern over a developing humanitarian crisis.
The European Union slammed what it termed as "collective punishment" of impoverished Gaza's 1.5 million residents, while the United Nations called on Israel to open the territory's crossings to ease a "desperate" situation in a zone where most people depend on foreign aid.
Generators hummed across Gaza City after the territory's sole power plant shut down late Sunday after it ran out of fuel, plunging
entire blocks into darkness.
With Gaza crossings closed and fuel for generators slowly running out, the International Committee of the Red Cross (iCRC) warned that hospitals in the territory only had a few days' worth of fuel to run their generators.
Gaza City slowly grinded to a halt yesterday, with traffic dying down on the normally bustling streets and bread lines forming outside the few bakeries that had not closed for lack of fuel.
Weary Gazans awoke in darkness and struggled to stock up on staples after the territory's sole power plant -- which provides most electricity to the city -- shut down over the fuel shortages late Sunday.
Bread lines formed in some areas late Sunday night after the station shut, and by Monday morning most bakeries had closed their doors.
"We have enough bread to last one more hour," said Khamis Akia, the owner of one of the last functioningfalafel stands in the city.
"There is no electricity, no running water, and no bread," he added. "Tomorrow, I'll sleep late. We aredone."
Around the comer a long line of dozens of people filled the sidewalk outside one of the last functioning bakeries in the city.
"I have 12 kids and there is no bread in the house. My daughter's family had some, but she'll run out soon too," said one woman who asked not to be named, who had been standing outside in the early morning cold for nearly three hours.
"There is no electricity, just candles. The children were scared of the dark. They don’t know what is happening."
Another man had been waiting since 4:00 am (0200 GMT). "1 only have two children so I am lucky. I only need two shekels' worth, but some of these families need eight ”
"More than a million people here depend on the bakeries. The world is waiting for a plague before it does anything, and there is going to be a plague here if this continues," he added.
Public transportation across the territory has also nearly come to a halt, with the minibuses and taxis on which most Gazans depend grounded for lackof fuel.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stood firm over Israel's four-day-old blockade of Gaza on Monday, saying Israel will provide the territory with only the bare minimum as long as Hamas retains control.
"We are targeting members of terror organisations," a senior government official quoted Olmert as telling visiting Dutch Foreign Minister MaximeVerhagen.
"But the population has to understand that as long as Hamas rules there, we will provide them only with the bare minimum,” he said.
Olmert spoke amid mounting warnings from aid organizations of a looming humanitarian crisis in Gaza four days after Israel closed the border.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered the crossings into Gaza - where most of the 1.5 million residents depend on aid -- shut late Thursday in retaliation for continuing rocket fire from the territory run by the Hamas movement for seven months.
After Gaza's sole power plant, ■vhicli prorides up to a third of the :crritory's electricity, shut down late Sunday much of the city was left in iarkness, illuminated only by car leadlights, small wood fires on sidewalks, and a constellation of ipartment windows lit by genera-
The hum of generators hung over Saza City on Monday, but officials vamed that these would soon fade •ut as fuel supplies ran out.
The supply of candles is running ow as well. "1 have not had any andlcs for three days," Musab al-’azori, a Gaza City supermarket wncr said, sitting behind the cash egister in his dreary, unlit shop.
Business for him has been brisk Uely, with local residents stocking p on canned goods, sugar, rice, and iilk but the food left in his shop will non rot in his six darkened refriger-
" No one is going to buy any of it," he said.
Meanwhile EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero Waldner hit out at Israel Monday, slamming its blockade of the strife-tom Gaza Strip as "collectivepunishment".
"I am against this collective punishment of the people of Gaza. I urge the Israeli authonties to restart fuel supplies and open the crossings for the passage of humanitarian and commercial supplies," she said in a statement. . ,
"The recent decision to close all-border crossings into Gaza as well as to stop the provision of fuel will exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and risks escalating an already difficult situation on the ground," Fe rrero-Waldner said.
"Cutting the supply of fuel jeopardises the electricity production and the supply of clean water. Over the weekend we have already seen blackouts in parts of Gaza, affecting both homes and hospitals. Closing the crossings will also result in shortages of food, medical and relief items."
She insisted that neither the blockade nor recent military strikes in the narrow coastal strip of Palestinian territory would prevent rocket strikes being launched into Israel.
"Only a credible political agreement this year ... can turn Palestinians away from violence," she said.
The EU's executive body, through a special international mechanism, has been supplying fuel to run the Gaza plant. Even fuel used to fire the many generators in use in the territory was in danger of runningout Monday.