JERUSALEM – An Israeli rights group on Tuesday said the military is still preventing basic goods like vinegar, coriander and toys from entering Gaza as part of a crippling embargo on the Hamas-run territory.
The report by the Gisha Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement marking three years since closures were tightened said Israel permits just 97 different items to enter, as compared to more than 4,000 that entered before June 2007.
A large Israeli supermarket, by comparison, would be stocked with 10,000 to 15,000 different items, the group said.
Israel has said the closures imposed in June 2006 and tightened after Hamas violently seized power a year later are needed to contain the Islamist group and that the humanitarian needs of Gaza’s 1.5 million residents are being met.
But the Gisha report said Israel keeps out goods that have no apparent military purpose, including ginger, paper and musical instruments.
“(Israel) forbids the transfer to Gaza of large blocks of margarine intended for industrial usage yet allows in small packages of margarine for household consumption,” Gisha said.
“It bans the transfer of rubber, glue and nylon which are used in the production of diapers in the Strip, yet allows the transfer of diapers produced in Israel.”
Just 2,300 truckloads of goods are allowed in each month, compared to 10,400 before the blockade, it said, adding that some 30,000 trucks enter Manhattan, which has roughly the same population as Gaza, each day.
As for export, Gisha said that just 259 trucks have left Gaza since June 2007, compared to an average of 70 trucks per day before the closures.
By comparison, it said the Israeli food company Tnuva sends out 400 trucks per day from its factory.
Most consumer goods are available in Gaza because they are brought in through a vast network of smuggling tunnels beneath the Egyptian border, a high-risk trade controlled and regulated by Hamas.
The sanctions have however prevented virtually any reconstruction following Israel’s devastating 22-day war on Hamas that ended in January 2009 and destroyed or severely damaged thousands of homes.
Israel recently began allowing in limited amounts of building materials for UN projects. But the cement and other supplies brought in through the tunnels are beyond the means of most Gazans, 80 percent of whom rely on foreign aid.
