BICOM

Israel’s Defence Ministry yesterday announced that it had permitted the largest single shipment of building materials into the Gaza Strip since Operation Protective Edge last summer.

According to AFP, officials from the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli body responsible for coordinating movement from Palestinian-controlled territories, said that 354 trucks carrying “construction materials” had crossed the Kerem Shalom border crossing into the Gaza Strip.

The United Nations says that as many as 100,000 Gazans remain homeless following last summer’s conflict. Earlier this month, the Association of International Development Agencies said that barely one quarter of the billions of pounds pledged by the international community for Gaza reconstruction had been released so far.

During 2015, Israel has introduced a range of measures meant to ease movement in and out of the Gaza Strip, in order to aid reconstruction. The amount of water Israel supplies to Gaza was doubled after a coastal aquifer had become ineffective. Israel also increased the number of entry and exit permits to Gaza merchants and has also facilitated the export of significant Gaza produce to the West Bank, an important market for the Gaza economy.

Yesterday’s shipment of construction materials comes despite Israeli authorities having thwarted three attempts during the last three weeks to smuggle illicit materials through the Kerem Shalom crossing, earmarked for terrorists in the Gaza Strip to boost their capabilities to attack Israel. Israel’s Defence Ministry said that since the start of 2015, more than 100 attempts “to smuggle forbidden goods and substances” have been prevented by Israeli forces.

At the same time, there have been numerous recent reports that Hamas has test fired rockets into the Mediterranean Sea. The Telegraph reported earlier this month that Iran had transferred millions of pounds to enable Hamas to rebuild tunnels and replenish its rocket supplies.