BICOM

An Israeli official announced yesterday that Israel will double its annual supply of water to the Gaza Strip in order to help avert a water crisis there.

Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, who is the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli body responsible for coordinating movement at the Gaza border crossings, told Palestinian daily Al-Quds that Gaza would receive 10 million cubic metres of water, an increase from the current supply of five million. The Jerusalem Post says that the increased supply could begin to flow as early as next week.

Gaza receives most of its water from a coastal aquifer, which has been overused and is becoming ineffective. The Israel-Palestinian Joint Water Committee, established as part of the Oslo Accords, is charged with overseeing Israeli water supply to Gaza and West Bank Palestinian territories. However, it has not met for five years and so Mordechai circumvented this framework to speed up the increased Gaza supply.

Last month, COGAT announced that it is easing restrictions on movement in and out of Gaza in order to aid reconstruction following Operation Protective Edge. It increased entry permits for Gaza merchants to the West Bank and Israel from 3,000 to 5,000 a month, while the number of daily exit permits from Gaza to the West Bank and to Israel was doubled. Towards the end of 2014, COGAT also facilitated the export of significant Gaza produce to the West Bank, an important market for the Gaza economy. It has also ensured the import of 62,000 tons of construction supplies since August.

Also yesterday, the Bank of Israel said that the number of Palestinians working in Israel on both sides of the pre-1967 border had doubled in 2014. In total, 92,000 Palestinians work for Israelis, earning on average 65 per cent more than those working in Palestinian territories. The Bank of Israel attributed the spike in part to increased number of Israeli permits granted.