Gaza: “No fuel, no gasoline, no benzene”

"We are helping him so he can go back home, as he has been stuck here in Gaza City since the early hours of morning. We went to all the gas stations but they were closed, no fuel to buy," says Abu Sama'an, amongst idle drivers at a taxi stop, near Gaza's Shifa Hospital.

Next to the hospital lies one of the largest gas stations in the city, al-Khuzendar station.

On the roof of the station is a newly installed, well-dressed scarecrow, slightly different from his cousin who can be seen in farm fields to keep birds away.

This scarecrow is not meant to frighten passersby, but apparently to attract people's attention to the fuel crisis. It was accompanied by many posters affixed to fuel machines reading, "No gasoline, no benzene, no gas."

The well-dressed roped scare crew is labeled, "the responsible."

Ma'moun al-Khuzendar, the station owner and a member of the gas station syndicate in the Gaza Strip, explained, "This is a message of protest to all those responsible for our current fuel crisis. Those who are responsible should be held accountable, as we are being forced to close down our stations and stay idle."

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