Mohamed Awad, the Hamas foreign minister in Gaza, has denied that he accused Egypt of preventing the passage of a Qatari ship carrying fuel to the Gaza Strip.
Media outlets quoted Awad on Tuesday as saying that Egypt would not allow the ship to pass unless Hamas accepted Israeli fuel supplies for Gaza’s electricity plant.
Awad said he had not made any such statements, adding that the allegations are an attempt to induce tension.
An Egyptian crackdown on cross-border fuel smuggling has caused occasional power outages in Gaza over the past months due to a shortage of fuel for its only power plant.
On Thursday, military council head Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi ordered the transfer of 20,000 tons of fuel to Gaza for use in its electricity plant.
Edited translation from MENA.
