Construction materials allowed entry to Gaza by Israelis

Israel has agreed to allow construction materials enter Gaza for the benefit of the private sector for the first time since the blockade against that territory, said a Palestinian official on Tuesday. "Israel has agreed to admit limited amounts of cement and other construction materials for the benefit of the private sector in Gaza," said in a press statement Nazmi Muhanna, the official in the Palestinian Authority in charge of border checkpoints. Israel had clamped down seven years ago on the entry to Gaza of all construction materials after having imposed a blockade on it, with the exception of allowing small amounts of these materials needed by international relief organizations working there such as UNRWA. "The Israeli side has made promises to allow the entry of cement and other construction materials on an incremental basis," said Muhanna, vowing that the Palestinian Authority would exert all efforts to bring back the status quo ante at Gaza's border checkpoints, before the onset of the blockade. He appealed to those in the construction business to contact the proper officials in their districts to see about receiving the materials for their building projects. In the past few years, Gazans -- suffering from the aftermat of the Israeli blockade -- could in a convoluted way bring construction materials into Gaza via the tunnels they had dug beneath the territory's border with Egypt. These smuggled materials came in handy in some of the reconstruction works undertaken in Gaza following Israeli military clampdowns and transgressions which often led to the destruction of many homes and buildings and roads there.