GAZA CITY (IRIN) — Frequent closures of the only crossing for commercial goods between Israel and the Gaza Strip have left Palestinians short of gas for cooking and heating, affecting businesses, agricultural production and health services.
Kerem Shalom crossing reopened on 26 June after two days of closure. Israel has closed the crossing five times since the end of February, for a total of 15 working days, in addition to six days of closure due to holidays.
Before this most recent closure, Palestinians in Gaza said they were still recovering from the series of closures in the spring, which they say created a cumulative deficit in gas.
At one of Gaza’s major gas distributors, some 40,000 empty cylinders fill the station.
“Some people have been waiting for months to get their cylinders filled,” owner Yusri Daban said. He manages to fill about 1,500 per day, but is flooded with an equal amount of empty arrivals.
Daban’s company used to receive 25 tons of gas per day for distribution. His share decreased to 18 tons due to the shortages, and has not been increased since. He says he needs 35 to 45 tons a day to deal with the backlog.
Maher Tabba’, spokesperson of the Gaza chamber of commerce, said the shortages have affected production on farms, factories, bakeries and restaurants, and have added to the chronic power cuts by putting an even higher demand on electricity.
Empty cylinders
Along the wall of Ahmed al-Ajrami’s bakery, about a dozen gas cylinders sit empty. His current stock covers him for just two weeks, he said.
“I am [stuck] between gas shortages and power cuts which impact my business deeply,” he said. “Either way is very difficult, but we are trying to adapt to keep working and to serve customers.” He estimated that his revenue dropped by about 10 percent as a result of the recent shortages.
Gisha, an Israeli organization that campaigns for freedom of movement, describes the closures of Kerem Shalom crossing as a form of collective punishment against a civilian population, which is a violation of international law.
The closure-related shortages come on top of long-standing restrictions on imports and exports, related to a blockade on Gaza imposed by Israel since 2007.
“The additional closures of Kerem Shalom over the past months have aggravated existing shortages,” Gisha said in a recent paper (“Creeping punishment,” May 2013 [PDF]).
Increased costs
The Gaza-based Association of Gas Station Owners, which is responsible for the import of cooking gas, estimates that the demand in Gaza is about 1,250 tons per week, but that on average, only 850 tons are brought in from Israel. Another five tons are brought in daily through tunnels from Egypt, but the process is complicated and the price is high.
As a result of chronic shortages over the years, many businessmen have switched from gas stoves to electrically-powered devices, incurring the increased costs of running a generator. According to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), access restrictions, including repeated closures, have widened the gaps in key areas such as health, education, electricity, water and sanitation.
“These measures are resulting in the depletion of stocks of essential supplies, including basic foodstuffs and cooking gas, and undermine the livelihoods and rights of many vulnerable Gazan families,” humanitarian coordinator James Rawley said in April during a closure of Kerem Shalom. “If these restrictions continue, the effect upon the Gaza population will be serious” (“United Nations humanitarian coordinator expresses concern regarding the deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip,” 10 April 2013).
“Dire situation”
Bassam Barhoum, a Palestinian health ministry official, said public hospitals and health centers need more than four tons of gas per month to feed patients and staff and disinfect bed sheets and clothing.
“What we have now is [stocks] roughly enough for about four days,” he said, down from the usual stocks of one to two weeks. “We are in a dire situation.”
Gas is brought to Gaza in trucks that transmit gas from the Israeli side through a pipe at the crossing to trucks waiting on the Palestinian side. The trucks need special permission to enter the crossing area.
According to Gisha and the Association of Gas Station Owners, the pipeline operates from 8am to 3pm or 4pm, at a capacity of 22 tons per hour, bringing in between 160 and 180 tons per day. But the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the unit of the Israeli defense ministry responsible for coordination in the West Bank and Gaza, says the crossing has a capacity of 240 tons a day — a stance Gisha and others question.
OCHA said access restrictions are just one of many factors at play in the gas shortages. Others include delays in the placement of orders by local gas dealers; the costs related to taxes and fees; a two-day weekend during which the crossing is closed; higher transportation costs due to the location of the crossing on the southern border of the Strip (a more accessible crossing point at Nahal Oz was closed in 2010); and the security coordination procedures between Israeli and Palestinian trucks on either side of the pipeline, which can sometimes take hours.
Gas dealers say the underutilized capacity at the crossing is due primarily to the last factor: delays in actually reaching the pipeline.
“What we need now because of the cumulative shortage is 250-300 tons a day to close the current gap,” said Mahmoud al-Shawwa, head of the Association of Gas Station Owners. More
