Israel restores normal fuel supplies to Gaza

JERUSALEM, June 18 (Reuters) The Israeli company that provides fuel to the Gaza Strip said it restored normal supplies today after Palestinians protested cutbacks to the Hamas-controlled territory.

''Beginning today, we have resumed the regular supply of fuel to the Gaza Strip,'' said Dor Alon, a private Israeli fuel company that supplies Gaza, reversing a decision announced yesterday to provide fuel only to Gaza's power stations.

A representative of Palestinian petrol companies had warned on Sunday that the territory could run out of fuel for cars and cooking within two days if Israel did not restore supplies.

Israel wants to isolate Gaza after Hamas seized control of the territory in less than a week of fierce factional fighting with President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction.

The Western-backed Abbas swore in an emergency cabinet on Sunday after sacking a three-month-old unity government he formed with Hamas, which won parliamentary elections in January 2006.

Senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said he had asked Israel to allow fuel and raw materials to reach the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza, many of them aid-dependent refugees.

REUTERS JK VC1445