International humanitarian groups are predicting a worsening crisis in the Gaza Strip despite a pledge by an Israeli minister late Monday to resume sending fuel supplies to the territory.
Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak promised to allow medical supplies as well as diesel fuel to be shipped to the Gaza Strip for essential power supplies from Tuesday.
But organisations including the United Nations relief agency warned of a worsening crisis while the area remained without power, heat or light.
Amid predictions that more than a million people would soon be without safe drinking water, there were reports of raw sewage spilling into the streets because there was no electricity to fuel the local pump station.
The Gaza power plant shut down its two working turbines on Sunday, leaving much of Gaza in darkness, after Israel closed border crossings on Friday.
Hospitals dependent on vital diesel supplies were also predicting that they would run out of fuel within hours and then be forced to make crucial life or death decisions for their patients.
John Ging, director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza said the civilian population was living in "abject misery" and had been stripped of their human dignity.
"People here in Gaza have been living in abject misery and hardship now for a long time," Ging told the Arab TV network, Al-Jazeera. "On top of that they are living in darkness.
"You have to see how miserable the situation is. The civilian population is under occupation. It is collective punishment - they are victims."
San Jose Mercury News
Masked gunmen destroyed about two-thirds of the metal wall separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt in the town of Rafah early today and tens of thousands of Palestinians poured across the border to buy supplies made scarce by an Israeli blockade of the impoverished territory.
The gunmen began breaching the border wall dividing Rafah before dawn, according to witnesses and Hamas officials, who told the Associated Press that they had closed all but two of the gaps in the wall. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said people were allowed free movement through the open gaps.
Thousands of Gazans began crossing into Egypt and returning with milk, cigarettes and plastic bottles of fuel, the Hamas officials and witnesses said.
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