Israel suspended fuel supplies to those areas in the wake of the suicide bombing that killed 20 Israelis a week ago. The government lifted the ban on Wednesday. Now, the Israeli company that is the sole supplier of fuel to the Palestinians says it may be forced to stop pumping oil to those areas because of Israel's refusal to pay for the fuel with tax money collected on behalf of the Palestinians under the interim peace deals. The Israeli Company, Dor Energy, said the Israeli government had canceled an earlier arrangement to pay the company for fuel out of the taxes collected. Israel stopped transferring customs and tax funds to the Palestinian Authority shortly after the current conflict began last September in order to keep the Palestinians from using the money to support the uprising against Israel.
Palestinian officials say so far the fuel shipments are continuing normally.
But since they have no facilities for storing reserves, they say a cutoff would mean a shutdown of power stations and water pumping facilities within hours. Email this article to a friend.