ISRAEL-OPT: 'Humanitarian gesture' for Gaza

Photo: Erica Silverman/IRIN

Cement and iron are desperately needed in Gaza for reconstruction (file photo)

TEL AVIV, 3 August 2009 (IRIN) - Israel will allow a limited amount of cement and iron into Gaza for the first time since operation Cast Lead ended in January 2009, according to Israeli officials.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak have authorized the transfer of 90MT of cement and 60MT of iron and machinery into the Gaza strip to reconstruct the flour mill and other projects vital to the daily lives of Gazans.

Israel's Knesset (parliament) also authorized the transfer of steel pipes for the reconstruction of Gaza’s Khan Younis sewage plant.

Colonel Nir Faress, head of the Erez District Coordination Office (DCO), published an update to the Manufacturers’ Association of Israel on 29 July, according to which several items are now allowed into Gaza again, including clothing and shoes, cement, beverages, baked goods and sweets.

The update comes after seven months during which only food, certain hygiene products, medicine and medical supplies were allowed into Gaza.

An official in the Israeli Defense Force, who did not want to be identified, told IRIN: “This is a 'humanitarian gesture'. The cement and steel are destined for UN-supervised projects; the sweets and candy are a gesture towards the holy month of Ramadan due to begin on 20 August.”

Some 50,000MT of cement are needed to rebuild completely destroyed houses, according to the UN Development Programme in Gaza.

According to The Gaza Blockade: Children and Education Fact Sheet, issued by the UN and the Association of International Development Agencies, the main coordination forum for international NGOs operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), on 28 July, iron bars and cement are needed to build 105 new schools in Gaza to cater for the yearly increase in student population. During Israel’s military offensive, at least 280 schools and kindergartens were damaged or severely damaged, including 18 schools which were destroyed, the report states.

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