JERUSALEM: Israel on Thursday approved a plan to ease its blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip following weeks of international pressure, but provided few details on what new goods would be allowed in.
The security cabinet’s decision was a response to mounting international calls to ease the four-year blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory in the wake of a deadly May 31 raid on a fleet of aid ships.
Under the plan, Israel would "liberalize the system by which civilian goods enter Gaza (and) expand the inflow of materials for civilian projects that are under international supervision," the government said in a brief statement.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Israel would maintain its naval blockade and inspect all goods entering by land.
"The intention is to ensure that more goods can enter, but always after an Israeli check, which will ensure that there is no weaponry, no arms and no materials which could be used for warfare," he said in a statement.
Hamas swiftly rejected the move, which senior leader Ismail Radwan dismissed as an attempt to "relieve the pressure" on Israel following the flotilla incident.
"We in Hamas reject the Zionist decision, which is an attempt to obscure the international decision to completely lift the siege," he told AFP.
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority also rejected the move, with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat calling it a "public relations ploy."
"President Mahmoud Abbas demands the complete lifting of the siege on the Gaza Strip," he told AFP. "He believes there are no partial solutions."
The European Union, meanwhile, welcomed the Israeli decision.
"We’re looking with great interest to what the Israeli cabinet has said this morning," top EU diplomat Catherine Ashton said, adding that she hoped it would allow "many more products" to enter Gaza.
But France’s Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters: "It is the first major progress since the crisis began. But it is not enough."
The plan is reportedly based on understandings reached by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair that call for switching from a list of allowed items to a list of banned goods.
It would also allow the entry of more construction materials for UN projects to rebuild homes and infrastructure destroyed during the devastating 22-day Gaza war, launched by Israel in December 2008 to halt rocket attacks.
Blair called the decision an "important step" and said in the coming days he would discuss its details on behalf of the diplomatic Quartet, which consists of the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia.
"Israel has the clear right to defend itself and protect its security. The best way to do this is to ensure that weapons cannot reach Gaza whilst allowing into Gaza the items of ordinary daily life," he said.
Currently thousands of products — some as banal as toilet paper and ginger — are listed by Israel as constituting a "security" risk and prevented from reaching Gaza.
The list also includes construction materials, like metal pipes and cement, which Israel fears could be used for building rockets and constructing underground bunkers and tunnels.
On Wednesday, Israel allowed eight trucks loaded with kitchen equipment to enter Gaza for the first time since 2006, following recent decisions to allow in snack foods and other household items that were previously banned.
Until now most such goods have been brought into Gaza through a vast network of smuggling tunnels beneath the border with Egypt and sold at inflated prices.
The border closures came under renewed criticism following Israel’s deadly commando raid on an aid flotilla trying to run the blockade, in which nine Turkish activists were shot dead.
Israel has argued that the closures — imposed when one of its soldiers was seized by Gaza militants in a deadly June 2006 raid and tightened a year later when Hamas took over — are needed to contain the Islamist movement.
In the cabinet decision, Israel said it "expects the international community to work toward the immediate release of Gilad Shalit," now 23, who is believed to be held by Hamas at a secret location in Gaza.
