The no-go decision was also made after Gazan militants fired mortar shells and rockets at southern Israel earlier in the day, a day after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed four Hamas gunmen who they said were trying to plant a bomb along the border.
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A Palestinian refugee waits to receive food at a United Nations food distribution center in the Beach refugee camp in Gaza City Nov. 12, 2008. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said on Wednesday that it would run out of food within 48 hours as the blockade imposed on Gaza by Israel continues |
The continuing red light scrapped an originally planned delivery of EU-funded fuel and some 30 truckloads of food and other humanitarian supplies into the Hamas-ruled enclave.
Officials in Gaza warned that the only power plant there would have to shut down and a UN relief agency would be forced to suspend food distribution.
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Palestinians take part in the funeral of four Hamas fighters in southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, Nov. 13, 2008. The four were killed in an Israeli operation in the east of Khan Younis a day earlier. |
The clashes, which started last week when IDF paratroopers killed six Hamas gunmen in an operation inside Gaza and Hamas responded with a barrage of rockets, have further rattled the five-month-old Egypt-brokered truce between Israel and Gazan militant groups.
Concerns are mounting that the shaky truce, which both sides had generally honored before the flare-ups, might collapse as its initial six-month phase is approaching the end, although Israeli officials have voiced willingness to extend the deal.