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by IMEMC News

The Israeli Occupation has reduced by half, the amount of fuel supplies to the besieged Gaza Strip, over alleged rocket attacks from the coastal enclave, reported Palestine News Network.

The Israeli military claimed, Sunday night, that 3 rockets had been fired from Gaza toward the occupied territories and that 2 rockets had allegedly been intercepted.

Tel Aviv used that pretext to conduct an air strike against the Gaza Strip, as well as a region in Lebanon near the Syrian border.

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit in Israel’s ministry of military affairs that oversees civil matters in the Palestinian territories, announced Monday, that Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, with Israeli Minister of Defence, had ordered to downsize by 50%, the transfer of fuel through the Karem Shalom crossing, to Gaza’s only power station in Nuseirat, south of Gaza City.

COGAT said in a statement that “cutting the amount of diesel in half will significantly reduce” the plant’s output.

The military body said the measure would be in effect until further notice.

Mohammad Thabet, spokesman for the Gaza power company, described the Israeli decision as collective punishment.

“We already are in a crisis and now the Israeli decision will make it worse. It will have a grave impact on the lives of 2 million people and on vital services such as hospitals,” Thabet told Reuters.

Residents in Gaza usually have 6 hours of electricity supply, followed by 12 hours of power outage.

Thabet said the fuel cuts will shorten the 6 hour periods to 4 hours.

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli blockade since June 2007, causing a decline in the standard of living, as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and resulting poverty.

Palestinians in the coastal enclave have been protesting at the border every Friday since March 30, 2018 to demand the right to return of those driven out of their homeland by Israeli aggression.

More than 270 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces ever since anti-occupation protest rallies began in the Gaza Strip and over 16,000 Palestinians have also sustained injuries.

Israel has launched three major wars against the enclave, killing thousands of Gazans each time, and shattering the impoverished territory’s already poor infrastructure.