Row over fuel supplies

Palestinian officials complained that Israel cut fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip yesterday but Israel denied it had started to implement sanctions it plans to impose in response to rocket fire from the Hamas-run enclave.

Supplies have fluctuated in the past and there was some doubt on the amounts of fuel pumped across the frontier from Israeli suppliers to Palestinian businesses. The Israeli supply company declined comment on deliveries. It said it was acting on orders from the Defence Ministry which it would not disclose.

An official from the European Union, which funds fuel oil to Gaza's only electricity generating plant, said that pumping of this product had stopped from the Israeli side with about a quarter of the day's planned supply undelivered.

- Reuters