LEDE: Israeli settlers assaults on Palestinians and Israeli soldiers are increasing, the Palestinian petroleum corporation warns of fuel crisis in Gaza during the coming winter, if the siege continues, these stories and more coming up, stay tuned.


The News Cast

Israeli settlers in the West Bank have recently increased their assaults against the Palestinians, Israel's chief military officer in the occupied West Bank, Major-General Gadi Shamni said on Thursday.

Shamni told the Israeli online paper Haaretsz, that settlers are also escalating attacks on Israeli soldiers who occasionally intervene in settler attacks and assaults against Palestinians.

"In the past, only a few dozen individuals took part in such activity, but today that number has grown into the hundreds," Shamni told Israeli reporters on Thursday describing this escalation as significant.

The general went on to describe the settler attacks as "conspiratorial actions" against citizens, not just sporadic acts of violence by individuals.

Settler attacks have doubled during the year 2008. The United Nations (UN) had already reported 222 separate incidents of settler violence within the first six months of 2008, compared with a similar figure for the entire year of 2007.

Today, Israeli settlers set fire to a Palestinian's olive trees, in the village of Kufur Qaddum near Nablus. Israeli troops accompanied by Police forces have forcefully to evacuated the nearby illegal outpost of Shaveut ‘Ami.

Settlers hurled stones at the police who later arrested Danella Weiss, head of the near by Kidumim settlement as she was accused of assaulting a police officer.

In other news, the Palestinian General Petroleum Corporation is warning of a worsening crisis in Gaza this winter if the Israeli siege continues. Demands for fuel will increase as heating joins the list of unmet needs in the devastated Strip.

Fuel shortages have already wreaked havoc on the electricity supply, the sewage system, the ability to cook, and the medical sector which cannot run ambulances without gasoline.

Vice President of the corporation, Ahmed Ali, told reporters in Gaza that the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah must put pressure on Israeli authorities to end the fuel crisis.

Despite the agreement to “calm” with the armed resistance, the Israeli government continues to create devastating shortages in the Strip by keeping the crossings closed, and preventing imports and exports.

Ali said today, “The amount of fuel entering the Strip is not enough, but is slightly more. This means that the population will suffer from a severe fuel crisis during the upcoming winter season due to the increase in demand.”

The Gaza Strip is able to import a fraction of what the 1.6 million residents need at this point. Ali says that since there exists a crisis now, the situation in the winter when demand increases will be devastating. The Strip’s 1.6 million residents need between 500 to 700 thousand liters of diesel and 100 to 120 thousand liters of gasoline per day.

Conclusion

Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Hussam Qassis and George Rishmawi