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Israel lifted a restriction on fuel delivered to the Gaza Strip, essential to power the Palestinian enclave with electricity, a week after halving the flow after a series of violent incidents.
Israel announced on 26 August halving fuel deliveries to Gaza after rockets had been fired from the enclave on Israeli territory the previous day. On Monday, an Israeli defense official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the fuel restriction had been lifted on Sunday.
Fuel deliveries are essential to power the only power plant in the Gaza Strip that is under Israeli blockade. Israel justifies the blockade by the need to contain the Islamist movement Hamas, which leads the enclave and to which it has delivered three wars since 2008.
For observers critical of Israel's policies, this amounts to collective punishment against Gazans. Fuel deliveries, which are coordinated with the United Nations and paid for by Qatar, were agreed in late 2018 as part of a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas leaders.
According to the UN, these deliveries have improved the electricity supply for Gazans who currently receive about ten hours of power a day, compared with a minimum of four hours ago.
After a month of calm, rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, home to two million Palestinians, resumed in mid-August. In addition to this, there are attempts to infiltrate armed Palestinians into Israel, sometimes even rocket launchers.
Israel responds either by opening fire on men attempting to cross the security fence, or by bombarding Hamas "sites", which it blames for rocket fire as the movement heading the territory.
On August 27, the Israeli army bombed a Hamas military post in Gaza after firing a mortar shell at Israel.
(With AFP)