Supplies into Gaza increase slightly, says Israel

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel said on Sunday it had begun gradually easing its economic blockade of the Gaza Strip as part of an Egyptian-brokered truce with Hamas.

Peter Lerner, spokesman for Israel's military coordinator for the Gaza Strip, said the army was allowing 90 truckloads of food and commercial goods into the Hamas-controlled territory on Sunday.

Israel had let an estimated 100 truckloads per day through the border crossings of Kerem Shalom and Sufa until mid-April, when Gaza militants attacked Kerem Shalom, causing heavy damage.

Since that attack, Kerem Shalom has been shut down and the impoverished Gaza, home to 1.5 million people, has been receiving an estimated 60 truckloads of supplies a day through Sufa, Lerner said.

Palestinian officials could not immediately confirm the number of truckloads entering the Gaza Strip on Sunday.

But officials on both sides played down the immediate impact on humanitarian and economic conditions in the territory.

Israeli officials said last week that the army would, as a first step, increase supplies by an estimated 30 percent over pre-truce levels.

Under the ceasefire agreement that took hold last Thursday, Israel and Hamas have halted cross-border fighting.

The truce appears to be holding for now, though officials on both sides remain deeply skeptical the calm will last long.

(Reporting by Joseph Nasr in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Writing by Adam Entous; Editing by Richard Balmforth)