GAZA CITY (AFP) — For the past five days Abdullah Naqbil has been waiting outside the car he parked at a service station fuel pump, planning to be the first person served when the next shipment of diesel arrives.
"Sometimes I even sleep in the car," he says as he sits on the sidewalk.
Barely 20 of Gaza's 160 petrol stations are open, and then only when they receive fuel from Israel, which has blockaded the Gaza Strip in response to Palestinian rocket attacks.
The fuel shortages are compounded by Palestinian attacks on crossings into Gaza that have forced them to close for several days at a time and by strikes in recent months at petrol stations protesting the limited supplies.
The Islamist movement Hamas, which seized control of the territory last June, set up a fuel rationing system last month in a bid to cope with the shortages and, some say, to fill its own coffers.
In order to get fuel legally, car owners must register their vehicles with the Hamas-run authorities and pay an annual fee of 1,500 shekels (460 dollars) just for the ration cards. The fuel itself is extra.
Quantities are strictly limited: 20 litres (5.3 gallons) of diesel every two weeks for private vehicles, 30 litres (7.9 gallons) per week for commercial vehicles and 40 litres (10.5 gallons) a week for taxis.
Bus driver Yasser Abu Atta shakes his head as he looks at the card that will entitle him to buy 30 litres of diesel.
"It's barely enough for two days," he grumbles.
If he needs more fuel, he'll have to turn to the black market, which is thriving thanks to the short supplies.
Diesel sells for 2.06 dollars (1.33 euros) a litre at the pump but six dollars (3.89 euros) on the black market. A litre of petrol that sells for 2.56 dollars (1.66 euros) at the pump can cost as much as 10.28 dollars (6.63 euros).
Smugglers bring fuel in through tunnels dug under the border with Egypt and more than a few cash-strapped individuals resell their rations for a small fortune.
"People don't have a choice; they need to get around. So they buy from the black market," says Yasser.
Hassan Okasha, who heads the motor vehicle office where the ration cards are issued, says 30 to 40 percent of people resell their cards on the black market.
The less fortunate fill their tanks with cooking oil, their exhaust pipes belching the stench of burnt grease into the air. Or they simply use bicycles.
Authorities say the rationing is in everybody's interest in the crowded and fenced-off sliver of land along the Mediterranean coast.
"As long as there are shortages, we will maintain the rationing," says Okasha. "Of course, people are unhappy. When we give fuel to the fishermen, the farmers are unhappy and vice versa."
Gaza authorities say the territory only receives 800,000 litres (211,400 gallons) of diesel a week, or 30 percent of normal, pre-embargo supplies. For petrol, the figure is 70,000 litres (19,497 gallons), or 60 percent.
Humanitarian agencies say the sanctions, which Israel imposed after Hamas seized power and then tightened in January, amount to "collective punishment" of Gaza's 1.5 million residents.
But Israel says it is delivering enough to avert a humanitarian crisis and claims Hamas is hoarding large quantities of fuel for its own needs, something the Islamists categorically deny.
"Only four to five percent of the supplies are reserved for the needs of the government. Everybody pays, even the resistance buys its fuel," says Ahmed Ali, who heads the Gaza fuel agency.
"We distribute all the supplies," he said, adding that the health, farming and business sectors, as well as journalists, get special consideration.
Mahmud Khuzandar, vice president of the Gaza petrol station managers' union, believes Israel may have done itself a disfavour with the embargo, which he says is strengthening the Islamist movement.
"Registering vehicle licenses with Hamas is a way of recognising its legitimacy" and fills the movement's coffers, he says.
A Hamas official who asked not to be named says the registration drive is earning the movement about a million dollars a month.
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