Aid Flows into Gaza after Israel-Hamas Truce
Vital humanitarian aid poured into Gaza on Thursday as residents began rebuilding their lives following a devastating 50-day war between Israel and Hamas that experts say left no winners.
Millions in and around the war-torn coastal enclave were enjoying a second day of peace after the guns fell silent following a permanent ceasefire agreement that conditioned the easing of Israel-imposed goods and movement restrictions on the territory.
The truce, which went into force on Tuesday evening, saw the warring sides agree to a "permanent" halt to seven weeks of bloodshed in a move hailed by Washington and the United Nations.
Israel agreed to immediately lift restrictions on fishing, allowing boats to work up to six nautical miles from the shore in a move which went into effect early on Wednesday.
It also pledged to ease restrictions at the two crossings into Gaza, Erez and Kerem Shalom, to allow the entry of goods, humanitarian aid and construction materials.
Debate on crunch issues such as Hamas's demand for a port and an airport, and the release of prisoners, as well as Israel's calls to demilitarize Gaza have been postponed for another month until the sides resume talks in Cairo.
For now, the focus is catering for the immediate needs of the 1.8 million residents of the Gaza Strip, nearly half a million of whom were forced to flee their homes because of the fighting.
From early Thursday hundreds of lorries heaped with biscuits, sweets, soft drinks and nappies, as well as humanitarian aid supplies, heaved through the Kerem Shalom crossing, an Agence France Presse correspondent said.
But there were no construction materials arriving in Gaza, where countless homes have been destroyed by barrages of Israeli air, tank and artillery fire.
"The things that the people of the Gaza Strip were really waiting for -- construction materials -- have not got through,” Talib Abu Jaray, a 50-year old Palestinian truck driver said angrily.
Israeli rights group Gisha said the stringent security checks currently in place would have to change in order to speed up the import of building materials, otherwise reconstruction would be impossible.
"Since December 2013 Israel has been allowing in construction material for international organizations, but it's been a narrow, time consuming and complicated process," Gisha co-founder Sari Bashi told AFP.
"If Israel continues that approval process, it will take 100 years to rebuild Gaza," she said, noting that the livelihoods of some 70,000 Gazans depend on work in the construction industry.
Senior Hamas official Mussa Abu Marzuq said the reconstruction of Gaza was the "greater jihad," describing the war as a "smaller jihad."
A World Food Program aid convoy crossed into Gaza from Egypt on Wednesday, the fist since 2007, carrying food to last 150,000 people for five days, the Geneva-based agency said.
Another line of trucks took in 150 tonnes of medicine and medical equipment from Saudi Arabia, and 45 tonnes of health supplies arrived from an Oman welfare organization. Turkey also sent humanitarian aid, officials said.
Palestinian officials were expected to meet their Israeli counterparts on Thursday to discuss procedures at the crossings, a Palestinian official said.
Both Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement, the de facto authority in Gaza, hailed the ceasefire as a victory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas had laid down very clear conditions for halting its fire - but had not managed to get any of its demands.
"Hamas wanted a port and airport in Gaza, the liberation of Palestinian prisoners, the mediation of Qatar and Turkey and the payment of salaries for its employees," he said. "It got nothing."
Ahead of a new round of talks in Cairo, at which such issues are to be debated, Israel was taking a firm stance.
"There will be no port, no airport and no entry of materials that could be used to produce rockets or build tunnels," said Deputy Foreign minister Tzahi Hanegbi.
Israel has consistently linked Gaza's reconstruction with its demilitarization.
Hamas too claimed victory, saying it had "stood firm in the face of the arsenal of Zionist terrorism" and caused Israel heavy losses -- a reference to the 64 soldiers killed in the fighting in Israel's biggest military toll since 2006.
Source: Agence France Presse
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