VOA标准英语2008年-Israeli Blockade Eased as Fuel, Supply Trucks E

By Jim Teeple
Jerusalem
22 January 2008

Israel has allowed a one-day delivery of food and fuel to the Gaza Strip, partially¹ lifting a nearly week-long blockade of the territory. VOA's Jim Teeple has details from our Jerusalem bureau.

Israeli officials say they are allowing 2.2 million liters of fuel into Gaza - enough fuel for the Gaza power plant to generate electricity for about a week. The plant ran out of fuel on Sunday, shutting off power to Gaza City.

There were also deliveries of diesel² fuel for hospital generators³, cooking gas, food, and medicine - the first such deliveries since last Thursday when Israel sealed its borders with Gaza in response to Palestinian rocket attacks against the southern Israeli town of Sderot.

U.N. officials who had warned of an imminent⁴ humanitarian⁵ crisis welcomed the decision, but they say the threat of future closures makes it impossible to plan for reliable delivery of humanitarian supplies to Gaza's population. Chris Gunness is a spokesman for the United Nations in Jerusalem.

"This drip-drip, on-off, here-today gone-tomorrow policy of the Israeli establishment does not allow to plan or sustain a human development humanitarian operation to over one million people," he said.

Israeli officials say their policy of sealing Gaza's borders worked, saying Qassam rocket attacks against Sderot virtually ceased after the power went out in Gaza. Ariyeh Mekel is Israel's Foreign Ministry⁶ spokesman.

"What we will do is monitor the situation, and we will monitor two things; the number of Qassams or attacks on Israel," said Mekel. "We will monitor this, but we will also monitor the humanitarian situation in Gaza because we do not want a humanitarian crisis."

Mekel says those two conditions will determine whether Israel allows more supplies into Gaza or not.

1 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

2 diesel   

n.柴油发动机，内燃机

参考例句：

• We experimented with diesel engines to drive the pumps.我们试着用柴油机来带动水泵。
• My tractor operates on diesel oil.我的那台拖拉机用柴油开动。

3 generators   

n.发电机，发生器( generator的名词复数 )；电力公司

参考例句：

• The factory's emergency generators were used during the power cut. 工厂应急发电机在停电期间用上了。
• Power can be fed from wind generators into the electricity grid system. 电力可以从风力发电机流入输电网。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 imminent   

adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的

参考例句：

• The black clounds show that a storm is imminent.乌云预示暴风雨即将来临。
• The country is in imminent danger.国难当头。

5 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

6 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。