Industry sources said Egyptian suppliers were reducing fuel shipments to
the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. They said the shipments were heading for Libya,
where the smugglers were receiving much higher prices.
"The Libyans are offering much more for the fuel than Gazans could
afford,"
an industry source said.
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One Palestinian merchant, Ayman Abu Shanab, said Egyptian gasoline was
being sold for three times as much in Libya than in the Gaza Strip. Abu
Shanab said this has resulted in a drop in Egyptian smuggling to the Gaza
Strip from 200,000 to 50,000 liters of gasoline per day.
"The fuel that is coming from Egypt is of inferior quality," Abu Shanab
said.
The sources said the Egyptian suppliers were believed to have diluted
the gasoline to facilitate shipments to Libya. They said fuel stations in
the Gaza Strip were rejecting the fuel from Egypt.
"The quantity of fuel that entered the Gaza Strip over the past few days
is limited, and the gasoline doesn't match our fuel standard, so we rejected
some shipments," Mahmoud Al Khazandar, vice chairman of the Gaza Association
of Energy Companies, said.
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