Days of Palestine, Gaza Strip –Israeli authorities have banned more goods from entering the besieged Gaza Strip, a Palestinian official said Monday.
These goods are used in building temporary houses alternative to the cement permanent houses which were destroyed by the Israeli occupation last summer.
Among the banned goods are pinewood, steel pipes and welding rods, Palestinian border official Mounir al-Ghalban said.
Israeli authorities also banned goods imported by ten Palestinian companies, he added. It also arrested three merchants.
Since the beginning of 2015, the Israeli occupation forces have arrested 11 Palestinian merchants from the Gaza Strip at the Eretz Crossing.
The Israeli occupation has been banning the entry of building materials into Gaza, except for very limited quantities designated for projects carried out by international bodies, since mid-2007, said al-Ghalban.
During the Israeli 51-day offensive last year, around 21,000 housing units across the Gaza Strip were damaged, according to the Palestinian housing ministry.
Following the cease-fire, Robert Serry, UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, unveiled plans to impose strict oversight on the use of construction materials to rebuild Gaza.
Last October in Cairo, 50 countries pledged a total of $5.4 billion to the Palestinian government, half of which was earmarked for reconstruction of the devastated Gaza Strip.
However, almost nothing from all the pledges and agreements has been fulfilled yet. Thus, Palestinians started using material from the market to build alternative houses.
It seems that this furiated the Israeli occupation, which wanted the displaced Gazans revolt against the Palestinian resistance in Gaza, and it started putting more restrictions on certain commodities, claiming that Hamas uses them to build tunnels.
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