Gazans brace for crisis, defiant over soldier

GAZA, July 10 (Reuters) Palestinian government worker Khaled Mohammad said he had nothing left of value in his home in Gaza to sell after he sold his television set to make ends meet.

''What is there for me to see on television?'' said the father of seven with a shrug.

''The news is at my home -- no money, no electricity and no water. What else is there I need to know about?'' As Israel presses an offensive in Gaza to free a soldier and halt rocket fire, its bombing raids are compounding the hardship for Palestinians already dealing with a Western aid embargo that has left the Hamas government unable to pay wages since March.

Israel has defended the offensive its biggest since quitting Gaza last year and said it would stop if militants including members of the Hamas armed wing freed Corporal Gilad Shalit and halted rocket launches at the Jewish state.

Its helicopters hit the main power plant in central Gaza on June 28. Since then the entire Gaza Strip has been without electricity for 12 to 18 hours a day, the United Nations says.

The electricity cuts have disrupted water supplies, affected public services such as hospitals and paralysed businesses.

Israel has restricted the supply of fuel into the strip, making it hard to use generators, Palestinian officials said.

Some warn of a health crisis.

''A humanitarian and health catastrophe is inevitable if we don't get fuel,'' Gaza Mayor Majed Abu Ramadan told Reuters.

''We may even witness sicknesses which we have not seen for a long time such as cholera.'' Municipal officials said fuel shortages threatened garbage collection. today, black plastic bags full of garbage were piled high on the corners of many streets in Gaza City.

Abu Ramadan said without fuel in the next 24 hours, all waterwells in Gaza could also stop working.

Some sewage treatment stations had stopped, leaving raw waste to pour into the sea and in several streets.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said today Israel was still supplying Gaza with water and electricity. ''The reason we are is that we care for the population and we don't want to punish the civilian population,'' Olmert said.

NO FISHING Gazans are also suffering from food shortages as the biggest commercial crossing, Karni, has remained closed much of the time since the offensive was launched nearly two weeks ago.

U.N. aid agencies said on Saturday that civilians were disproportionately paying the price.

Israeli forces have killed about 50 people, including some 20 civilians, during the offensive, residents have said.

Naval boats on Monday continued to patrol near the shores of Gaza, preventing many fishermen from heading out.

''It is a war,'' fisherman Abu Hisham said. ''All of that for a soldier? Let him never be found.'' Palestinian attitudes are hardening. Some 77 per cent of Palestinians in a recent opinion poll said they backed the capture of Shalit. More than 60 per cent favoured the rocket attacks on Israel.

Student Mahmoud Ali, 23, said the problem did not start with Shalit. ''The capture of the soldier was in response to our suffering, therefore, he must not be freed until Israel releases our prisoners and ends its war on Gaza,'' he said.

Israel has rejected any negotiations with the captors.

Reuters SY DB2127