The defense cabinet approved the recommendation of the war cabinet tonight (Wednesday) to allow a minimal addition of fuel to prevent humanitarian collapse and the outbreak of diseases in the Gaza Strip, reportedly an increase to 120,000 liters of fuel a day.
According to the decision, the minimal scope of fuel will be determined from time to time by the war cabinet depending on the health and humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. All members supported the decision aside from Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who opposed the decision.
Sources in Ben Gvir’s entourage said that “we must not deliver fuel to Hamas. Every liter of fuel takes us further away from defeating Hamas. They are holding our hostages and our soldiers are falling there every day and the transfer of fuel is the direct continuation of that same conception. Some members of the cabinet have not had the penny drop that we need to change the preconception that failed decisively on October 7.”
“There is an ongoing erosion of the siege of Gaza,” they said, “it started with a few trucks of food, continued into a long convoy of trucks, then a little fuel and now they want to deliver convoys of fuel to them.”