Shipment of energy bars from Gaza breaks export ban
03/06/2012 01:47
Two trucks mark the first time since 2007 Hamas coup in Gaza that exports are allowed to the West Bank.
![Trucks at the Kerem Shalom Crossing in Gaza [file]](../HttpHandlers/ShowImage.ashx?ID=188117 "Trucks at the Kerem Shalom Crossing in Gaza [file]")
Trucks at the Kerem Shalom Crossing in Gaza [file] Photo: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters
Israel on Monday initiated a pilot program to allow 30 truckloads of energy bars
made from dates to enter the West Bank from Gaza.
The two trucks that
traveled out of Gaza on Monday marked the first time in almost five years that
Israel had approved Gazan exports to the West Bank.
Until Hamas’s violent
coup of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, 85 percent of its exports went to the West
Bank, according to Gisha – The Legal Center for Freedom of
Movement.
“This is an important step toward fulfilling the Israeli
government’s commitment to allow economic development for Palestinians living in
Gaza,” said Gisha’s director, Sari Bashi.
“The question is whether this
is a one-time gesture to the World Food Program (WFP) or a change in policy,” she
said.
Maj. Guy Inbar, the spokesman for the Coordinator of Government
Activities in the Territories, would not comment on the implications of the
pilot program.
He said only that the export of the Gazan energy bars to
the West Bank had been approved at the request of the Palestinian Authority and
the WFP.