General

Israel blocks entry of cement into Gaza

April 5, 2016 1:21 pm

Israel has suspended entry of cement and other construction materials into the Gaza Strip for private sector projects.

A spokesman for the Israeli military said part of the construction materials intended for civil reconstruction had gone to Hamas.

According to an announcement on the Israeli coordinator’s Arabic-language Facebook page, the deputy director of Hamas’ economic ministry has confiscated an undisclosed amount of cement that had been earmarked for rebuilding private-sector infrastructure damaged in the 2014 war with Israel.

Reconstruction agreements between Israel and the Palestinians prohibit Hamas, which governs Gaza, from accessing any imported construction materials over Israeli concerns that Hamas will use the materials to rebuild its vast network of underground tunnels designed for launching terrorist attacks against Israel and kidnapping Israeli soldiers.

Hamas has acknowledged rebuilding the tunnels, and numerous Hamas workers have died in recent months when tunnels they were working on collapsed.

Israel said it wants to avoid a situation where the materials are used to produce rockets and build attack tunnels.

Israel and Hamas accepted an Egypt-brokered ceasefire after 50 days of fighting in July and August, 2014.

As part of the ceasefire, Israel and the international community agreed to establish the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism (GRM), under which Israel would allow cement, metals and other building materials into Gaza.

The agreement stated that the movement of materials should be under strict international monitoring to ensure that the materials would be used for civilian reconstruction projects only.

The military body in charge of coordinating the entry of materials said that the suspension would be in place “until the issue is re-examined”.

“It is unfortunate that Hamas continues to exploit the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip for the interest of their terror interests,” said a spokesman for Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).