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Israeli Cabinet considers Gaza economic projects

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The Israeli Security Cabinet met yesterday to discuss infrastructure projects to relieve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Minister of National Infrastructure, Yuval Steinitz, proposed that a port in Cyprus could supply Gaza under Israeli supervision and Minister of Construction Yoav Galant proposed a joint industrial zone for Israelis and Gazans. Transport Minister Yisrael Katz presented his plan for an artificial island to provide electricity, desalinated water and a port. Deputy Minister Michael Oren proposed allowing 6,000 Gazans into Israel to work, turning the Erez crossing into a goods and supply crossing and linking it to the Ashdod port by railway link.

The Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Major-General Kamil Abu-Rokun updated on an existing project to allow 500 Israeli Arab businessmen to enter Gaza to assist the Palestinian economy. The Cabinet did not make any firm decisions on any of the other proposed projects.

Prior to the meeting, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that those who think improving the economic situation in Gaza will halt the violence are “simply wrong”. Rather, Gazans will “understand that with use of force and violence they can achieve political goals” and that improving the reality in Gaza requires the removal of Hamas.

Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett demanded that any relief projects for the Gaza should be conditional on Hamas agreeing to return the bodies of IDF soldiers and civilians held in captivity. “We need to remember that our sons, both bodies of soldiers and Israeli citizens, are held there. Therefore I propose the following equation: Humanitarian [steps] in exchange for humanitarian [steps]. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. On the other side [of the border] stands a vicious enemy waiting for signs of naiveté and free gifts.”

Israeli civilians Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed both crossed into Gaza of their own accord in 2014 and 2015, respectively, whilst the bodies of IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul were taken by Hamas in 2014.