News / Palestine

Palestinian resistance: Israel’s allowing of limited Gaza exports ‘insufficient’

Sunday, 15 August 2021 9:30 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 15 August 2021 9:45 AM ]

Palestinian workers and merchants gather for a demonstration demanding the reopening of the Erez border crossing to allow Gazans to resume work in the Israeli-occupied territories on July 14, 2021. (Photo by AFP)

Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance movements have described Israel's decision to allow a limited resumption of commercial exports from the Gaza Strip and entry of Palestinian traders as “insufficient,” emphasizing that such measures will not alleviate the suffering of Palestinians living in the besieged enclave.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem stated on Saturday that his group is “conducting intensive contacts with the mediators of the ceasefire agreement with the Israeli Occupation to compel it to completely end the tight siege imposed on Gaza.”

“The measures that the Occupation is talking about are insufficient. Such steps do not respond to the demands to end the humanitarian crisis in the (Gaza) Strip,” Qassem added.

Hamas will use different means to mount pressure on Israel if Gaza siege continues: Official

A senior member of Hamas has warned that the Palestinian resistance movement will use various means to pressure Israel if the siege on the Gaza Strip continues.

Separately, the spokesman for Islamic Jihad movement, Tariq Salmi, said Israel’s terrorism and aggression represented by the siege and prevention of construction materials into the Gaza Strip are part of the regime’s attempts to cover up its security and military failures, blackmail the Palestinian nation and put pressure on advocates of the Palestinian resistance movement.

Salmi also termed the tightening of the blockade on Gaza as “terrorism.”

“We will not surrender to them at all, but would rather confront them. The resistance will not allow the Occupation to employ the siege as a means to hide its failures,” he pointed out.

The Israeli military body responsible for civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories, COGAT, announced on Friday that officials would allow the entry of merchants and businessmen from the Gaza Strip through the Erez crossing for the first time in some 18 months.

Also, “exports from the Gaza Strip into Israel will recommence through the Kerem Shalom crossing, and imports from Israel into the Gaza Strip will be expanded —- including components belonging to the transport and communications sector,” COGAT said in statement.

Entry permits will be issued “only to those vaccinated against or recovered from COVID-19,” it said.

In wake of Israeli war, 62% in Gaza are food insecure: Report

A new report jointly compiled by the UN, the EU and the World Bank says the socioeconomic situation in the Gaza Strip has been weakened further since May.

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007 when Hamas took control of the coastal enclave.

The siege has inflicted severe hardship on residents. The poverty rate among Gaza’s population has reached 53 percent, while “extreme poverty” stands at 33.8 percent, according to statistics by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).

About 68 percent of families do not have enough to eat, while 80 percent of Gazans are dependent on aid.

The area’s unemployment rate stands at 45.1 percent, according to PCBS.

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