Israel Eases Gaza Blockade, Allows in More Imports

June 17, 2010, 2:50 PM EDT

By Gwen Ackerman and Calev Ben-David

June 17 (Bloomberg) -- Israel’s top ministers decided to relax the blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip after facing international criticism for a raid against an aid flotilla trying to breach the embargo that left nine Turks dead.

The decision will change the system by which goods enter Gaza and expand the import of “materials for civilian projects under international supervision,” the prime minister’s office said in an e-mailed statement today. Security procedures to prevent arms smuggling will remain in place, it said.

Ismail al-Ashqar, a senior Hamas official, called the move “meaningless and nonsense” and demanded a complete lifting of the siege. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the Israeli decision was “insufficient.”

The U.S., United Nations and European Union said after the May 31 commando raid that the situation in Gaza was unsustainable. Palestinians say Israel’s restrictions on imports have created a humanitarian crisis, while Israel says imports such as construction materials can be used to build rockets, bunkers and bombs.

The U.S. welcomed “‘the general principles” of Israel’s announcement. “They reflect the type of changes we’ve been discussing with our Israeli friends,” said Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman. The U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, is in the region now and will continue to work on ways to further ease the blockade, Toner said.

Greater Easing

Toner said the U.S. would like to see a greater easing of the blockade beyond the spices, potato chips and other items now allowed into the territory. “We want to expand the scope and types of goods allowed into Gaza to address the Palestinians’ legitimate needs for sustained humanitarian assistance and regular access for reconstruction materials while addressing, obviously, Israel’s legitimate security needs,” he said.

“Obviously this decision is some kind of response to the very difficult political situation created by the fallout or aftermath from the convoy raid,” said Mark Heller, principal research associate at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

‘Additional Steps’

Ministers “will decide in the coming days on additional steps to implement” the decision, according to the statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

U.S. envoy George Mitchell met Netanyahu at his Jerusalem office after the decision was announced to discuss Israeli- Palestinian peace efforts, U.S. Embassy spokesman Karl Hoyer said in a telephone interview. Earlier, Mitchell met with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, calling on all sides to “exercise restraint” and “to avoid confrontation,” according to an e- mailed statement from Barak’s office.

Mitchell, a former Senate majority leader, is scheduled to meet tomorrow with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salem Fayyad in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The statement from Netanyahu’s office, which was released after a meeting of top ministers, didn’t specify the changes Israel was taking to ease the blockade. Middle East envoy Tony Blair said this week that under new guidelines, construction materials needed to rebuild following the 2008 conflict between Israel and Hamas would be more freely allowed into the area.

New List

Blair also said that there would be a change “from the so- called permitted list of items, where things only come in when they’re on that list, to the prohibited list, where things come in unless they’re on that list.”

Erakat said that Israel has allowed only 114 items into Gaza. “Palestinian basic needs require at least 8,000 items that continue to be prohibited,” he said.

Israel this month started allowing in soft drinks, fruit juice, spices and potato chips, said Raed Fattouh, the Palestinian Authority’s liaison officer at the Kerem Shalom crossing. Mayonnaise, ketchup, sewing needles and thread also have been newly let in, he added.

Proposals examined by Israeli ministers this week also included allowing European observers to help monitor goods going into Gaza at the Rafah crossing from Egypt, at the Israeli port of Ashdod, and possibly at international hubs such as Cyprus, an Israeli government official said, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to speak to the press on the matter.

EU Task Force

Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said yesterday that she has created a task force to see how the bloc can help contribute to the lifting of the blockade, which she said has led to “shocking” conditions in Gaza.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said today’s decision is a “first step” that must be followed by “swift, concrete and noticeable improvements in access to the Gaza Strip.”

Israel imposed the embargo in 2007 after Hamas, which won parliamentary elections in 2006, seized full control of Gaza and ousted troops loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The militant Islamic group Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the EU, the U.S. and Israel.

According to figures from the Israeli Defense Ministry, 578 trucks carrying aid entered Gaza between June 6 and 12, compared with 484 trucks from May 30 to June 5.

Netanyahu said June 2 that each week “an average of 10,000 tons of goods enter Gaza” and that “there’s no shortage of food. There’s no shortage of medicine.”

Israel launched a three-week military offensive in Gaza in December 2008 that it said was meant to stop the firing of rockets by Hamas and other Palestinian militants into its territory. More than 1,000 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the conflict.

More than 400 rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza into Israel since the end of the 2008 military operation, killing one foreign worker last March, the Israeli army said.

--With assistance from Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv and Nicole Gaouette in Washington. Editors: Louis Meixler, Ann Hughey.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net