Israel still bans construction materials in Gaza despite ceasefire

Israel still bans the entrance of construction raw materials into the Gaza Strip despite of a ceasefire deal between Israel and the Gaza Hamas-led militant groups on Aug. 26, a senior official said on Sunday.
Nazmi Muhana, the director of crossings' corporation in the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), told Xinhua that until now the Palestinian side "hasn't been informed or received clues on any changes related to the operation of the two main crossings on the borders between Israel and the Gaza Strip."
"Right now, what is allowed everyday is only 250 to 300 trucks loaded with food, vegetables, clothes and fuels," said Muhana, adding that "the number of trucks hasn't increased since the end of the war."
On July 8, Israel waged a large-scale air, sea and ground operation of the Gaza Strip which lasted for 51 days until Egypt succeeded to broker a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinian factions. During the Israeli operations on Gaza, 2,145 Palestinians were killed and 11,100 wounded.
During the Israeli offensive on the coastal enclave, severe damages were caused to housing, construction, government's establishments, mosques and infrastructures. Part of the ceasefire agreement reached in Cairo was to allow all materials, including reconstruction materials and start the reconstruction of Gaza.
"The PNA intensified its contacts over the past few days to allow construction and industrial raw materials in the Gaza Strip in order to start the process of reconstruction after the war ended," said Muhana, referring to details of the agreement that included easing eight years of blockade imposed on Gaza.
In 2007, Israel imposed a tight blockade on the coastal enclave right after Islamic Hamas movement's violent takeover of the territory. However, in 2010, Israel eased the blockade following the Israeli commandos attack on the Gaza-bound flotilla, where Israel killed nine Turkish activists.
Besides easing the Israeli blockade, the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire agreement also expanded the fishing area for Gaza fishermen from three miles to six miles.
Israel and the Palestinian also agreed through Egypt to hold negotiations after one month of the ceasefire on other issues such as building a sea port and an airport for the Gaza Strip and the release of prisoners.
Qais Abdul Kareem, member of the Palestinian delegation to the talks in Cairo told Xinhua that "until now, no specific date was decided yet on resuming the indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks," adding that "talks are supposed to resume after one month on bigger issues to end the blockade."
Meanwhile, Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas movement's spokesman in Gaza, said in an emailed press statement that "what was mentioned in the agreement is that talks will resume one month after reaching the ceasefire agreement, and nothing was written saying that the ceasefire will be over after one month."
On Sunday, most of the Palestinian ministries reopened in the Gaza Strip after the end of the Israeli offensive. Most of the employees returned to their positions. However, several ministries ' buildings were badly damaged or totally destroyed by Israel.
"More than 82 official governmental buildings were destroyed, most of these buildings belong to the Palestinian ministry of interior," said Ihab al-Ghussein, the director general of the Palestinian ministry of information based in Gaza. "We have efforts to resolve the problems of the ministries' damage."
Meanwhile, the minister of housing and public work in the Palestinian unity government Mufid al-Hassayna told Xinhua that his ministry is doing intensive efforts to resolve the problem of housing by bringing 3,000 caravans from Turkey.