Gazan protesters call on Egypt to resume fuel flow

Thousands of people have held demonstrations in the Gaza Strip to call on Egypt to resume the flow of fuel to the Israel-blockaded Palestinian territory. The demonstrators staged protests after Friday Prayers in the northern cities of Jabalia and Gaza City, the Associated Press reported. In mid-February, Egypt blocked the flow of diesel through the tunnels lying beneath its border with Gaza, which are used to transfer supplies into the impoverished coastal sliver amid a crippling siege imposed on the territory by Israel. The stoppage forced the territory's sole electricity power plant out of work, causing the enclave to start experiencing blackouts of up to 18 hours a day. During the Friday protests, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh called the decision by Egyptian officials ‘a plot’ against Gazans. Gaza has been blockaded by Tel Aviv since 2007, causing a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty. The full-scale land, aerial, and naval siege has turned the enclave into the world's largest open-air prison.