JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could ease the blockade imposed on Gaza following international criticism of the deadly raid on an aid flotilla, Israeli media reported on Thursday.
The prime minister could allow merchant ships to carry goods to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip but only after an inspection, public television said.
The private Channel 10 television said meanwhile that the prime minister could seek international help to inspect shipments heading for Gaza, which has been under embargo since Hamas violently seized the territory in 2007.
The reports said Netanyahu hopes this would ensure that no arms reach Gaza and that it would help deflect international criticism following Monday’s deadly raid that killed nine foreign aid activists.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon demanded Wednesday that Israel lift the blockade immediately in the wake of the raid.
Ban said the crippling Israeli siege of the impoverished Palestinian coastal enclave was "counter-productive, unsustainable and wrong."
In recent months, Ban has consistently urged Israel to lift the blockade and allow the United Nations and other humanitarian relief supplies into Gaza.
"If this had been done, this tragedy would have been avoided," he noted.
The diplomatic Quartet seeking to bring about Middle East peace — The European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States — has stressed the need "to fundamentally improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza," according to Ban.
Netanyahu on Wednesday defended the Gaza blockade, insisting that it was key in preventing weapons from reaching the Palestinian territory, where Hamas use tunnels on the Egyptian border to smuggle in weapons.
"Hamas continues to arm itself and Iran continues to transfer weapons to Hamas," the premier said.
The Jewish state withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but maintained control of all the crossings, with the exception of the Rafah border crossing, which is now policed by Egypt.
Since 2007, Gaza’s economy has been largely sustained by international aid and the smuggling of goods through a vast network of tunnels from Egypt.
President Hosni Mubarak ordered this week the opening of the Rafah border in response to Israel’s deadly raid on the flotilla. Over 1,000 Palestinians navigated through the Rafah border crossing since its opening on Wednesday, but some Gazans destined to Egypt were denied entry for lacking official papers.
