Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations    

    GAZA, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Israel closed down Nahal Oz fuel crossing which supplies most of the Gaza Strip's fuel on Wednesday after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants seriously wounded a Palestinian fuel worker near the depot.

    "Israel stopped fuel shipments into Gaza under security pretexts after the rocket landed on the Palestinian depot" where Israeli fuel is accumulated before being pumped into Gaza, said Mujahed Salama, director of the Palestinian Petroleum Agency (PPA).

    Salam said a PPA worker was seriously wounded in the attack which also damaged some cooking gas pipes, adding that "the quick reaction by the other workers prevented a disaster from occurring."

    He described the rocket attack as "unjustified criminal act," accusing the Palestinian militants, who fired the rockets, of "seriously seeking to suffocate Gaza by preventing fuel deliveries."

    No Palestinian militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack amid ongoing similar home-made rocket attacks targeting Israeli communities along the border with the Gaza Strip.

    Many rockets exploded prematurely and, in several cases, killed Palestinians.

    Israel closes Nahal Oz crossing from time to time due to the attacks. Since September, three months after Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip, Israel has restricted fuel shipments to the coastal strip to pressure Hamas to stop the rocket fire.



Israeli army halts Gaza oil supply due to rocket attack

   JERUSALEM, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Wednesday ceased oil transfers to the Gaza Strip after a Qassam rocket hit the Nahal Oz fuel terminal.

    The spokesman of IDF told Xinhua that the rocket fired by Palestinian militants hit the Gaza side of the Nahal Oz crossing. One Palestinian worker was severely wounded. Full story