Israel boosts Gaza freight flow as blockade eases

A Palestinian man stands near trucks loaded with fruits and vegetables parked at the Kerem Shalom border crossing after their arrival in the southern Gaza Strip from Israel June 21, 2010.

KEREM SHALOM, Israel (Reuters) - Israelis at this fortified border crossing are preparing for a sharp increase in road shipments to Gaza, following a decision to loosen Israel's blockade of the Palestinian enclave.

Israel's old rules banned everything it chose not to let in. Now it is promising to let in everything that has not been specifically ruled out.

"This is a real easing up," Palestinian coordinator Raed Fattouh told Reuters. The Israelis told him of six items that were now permitted, including fishing gear, agricultural tools, car parts and oil, cosmetics and perfume, home equipment and children's toys, Fattouh said.

Officials at the Kerem Shalom (Vineyard of Peace) freight terminal said they were ready to handle up to 120 truckloads a day of food and trade goods for Gaza as soon as Palestinian coordinators organize the extra capacity on their side.

"Following the government's decision to liberalize the system (we) have started implementing an expanded operation of the existing crossing, increasing the capacity of Kerem Shalom by 30 percent," said Major Elrom Or of the Israeli military.

"The list of items that will not be allowed into the Gaza Strip is still being concluded and will be published later."

Israel is easing its grip on Gaza after almost four years, to let in all goods except for arms and materials that could be used for military purposes, such as cement and steel rods.

The blockade has been criticized as collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians in a bid to weaken their hardline Islamist leaders, Hamas, who remain firmly in control.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, reinforcing a consistent demand of the United Nations Palestinian relief agency UNRWA, called for the total removal of the blockade. He said that letting some materials in was not the way to end the suffering of Palestinians in the tiny coastal enclave.

Israel came under strong pressure to ease the blockade after its May 31 raid on a convoy of Gaza-bound aid ships killed nine pro-Palestinian activists, sparking an international outcry.

HEAVY LIFTING

Moving supplies into Gaza is a laborious process. Truckloads of mainly food aid have to be security-checked at Ashdod port.

At Kerem Shalom, by the Egyptian border, everything is offloaded in big corrals made of two-storey high concrete slabs. The Israeli trucks leave, the gates are closed, and Palestinian truckers drive in from their side to re-load the shipments.

Security is tight at the site just east of the Gaza border town of Rafah, where hundreds of tunnels to Egypt form the main conduit for all kinds of smuggled, and therefore very costly, commercial goods, ranging from cars to corn flakes to calves.

Under its new rules Israel is expected to let in building materials for Palestinian Authority-approved projects including schools, clinics and sanitation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denies Palestinians are suffering in the narrow enclave, which suffered heavy damage in Israel's three-week military assault 18 months ago to put an end to the steady rain of rockets from Gaza.

Easing the blockade "strengthens our position toward our friends in the world," he said Monday. "It pulls the rug out from under Hamas's main propaganda tool and its patrons in Iran, who pretend there's a humanitarian crisis in Gaza."

Additional seaborne aid flotillas aimed at challenging Israel's naval blockade are due to set sail in the coming weeks.

Netanyahu said Iran, which supports Hamas as well as the militant Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, was behind the flotillas.

Israel's friends would endorse its tightening of the naval and security blockade on Hamas, he told parliament, because "removing the civil blockade" underscored its legitimacy.

Washington welcomed Israel's move and announced that President Barack Obama would hold a meeting with Netanyahu on July 6 that had been postponed in early June.

The Middle East "quartet" -- which groups the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- said it looked forward to full implementation. But it said Gaza's situation remained "unsustainable and unacceptable."

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Mohammed Assdaid and Luke Baker in Brussels. Editing by Noah Barkin)