Israel suspended fuel deliveries to Gaza last Wednesday after militants attacked the Nahal Oz fuel terminal leaving two Israeli civilians dead. In a retaliatory measure, involving tanks and helicopters, Israeli troops killed at least seven Palestinians.
Israel did not resume fuel supplies Wednesday following the clash. Earlier the Israeli Defense Ministry said that partial supplies to the Gaza Strip would resume Wednesday to try and avert a humanitarian crisis in the enclave.
Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) resumed peace talks last year after a seven-year hiatus at the U.S.-sponsored Middle East summit in Annapolis. They pledged to do everything possible to draft a peace settlement treaty by the end of 2008, as well as come to an agreement on the form of a future independent Palestinian state.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party controls the West Bank after being ousted by the hard-line Islamic group Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and some EU states, from the Gaza Strip in a bloody conflict last June.
Fatah receives financial assistance from the West, while Gaza is fully isolated and boycotted by the PNA, the U.S. and Israel. Hamas has called for reconciliation with Fatah, but refuses to give up control of Gaza.
