Governance of the Gaza Strip Fatah political party in the West Bank, at a time when tensions between the two parties became particularly intense. Gaza generally obtained its diesel fuel from Israel, but in 2011, Hamas began buying cheaper fuel from Egypt, bringing it via a network of underground tunnels, and refused to buy it from Israel. In early 2012, due to internal economic disagreement between the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas Government in Gaza, decreased supplies from Egypt and through tunnel smuggling, and Hamas's refusal to ship fuel via Israel, the Gaza Strip plunged into a fuel crisis, bringing increasingly long electricity shut downs
Blockade of the Gaza Strip situation in the Gaza Strip was more acute than at any time since the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967. While critical of Palestinian militants firing rockets from Gaza into Israel, and acknowledging that "Israel has the right and obligation to protect its citizens", they said that as the "occupying power in Gaza" it also has a legal duty to ensure Gaza civilians have access to food, clean water, electricity and medical care. They urged Israel to lift the blockade, characterizing it as collective punishment against the 1.5 million residents of the territory. According to the International Committee of