The Gaza embargo consensus among Israel's leadership seemed to be cracking on Sunday as the government considered its response to the fallout from the flotilla interception incident.
"Israel needs to consider alternatives to the embargo on Gaza in the aftermath of the Gaza flotilla incident," Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog (Labor) said at the opening of Sunday’s cabinet meeting. We need to prevent arms entering Gaza, but the embargo which has been in place since 2007 needs to be reconsidered.
“We need to ease the population’s conditions and find security-sensitive, worthy alternatives to the embargo,” Herzog said.
RELATED:PM may let more goods into Gaza'We had no choice, they had murder in their eyes'Cairo, Israel ease Gaza blockadeThe Campaign to Free Gilad Schalit responded to the possibility of lifting the blockade by demanding that a decision on that
question should not be taken without a
concomitant decision by the government to agree to the terms for a
prisoner exchange demanded by Hamas for the release of Gilad Schalit, Army Radio reported.
“We’ve been told repeatedly this embargo is a lever Israel is using to
lower Hamas demands, we’ve been doubtful about the effectiveness of this
from the start, but gave the government credit, if Israel gives up this
weak lever, it must commit itself to paying the price necessary to
return Gilad Schalit,” Shimshon Liebman who leads the campaign said.
Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz also said earlier Sunday, during the Likud ministers’ meeting that the nature of the relation between Israel and Gaza needed to be reconsidered, saying that “since the disengagement from Gaza there is a relationship between Israel and Gaza that is unreasonable and wrong. We are no longer there, but we are still held responsible. This is a chance to sever all ties to Gaza, except for weapons-smuggling prevention.”
We need to find a solution for civilian goods being transferred to Gaza
through Rafah and Egypt, with international participation, for instance
by the US.
Late on Thursday night, Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said he was considering letting
more goods into Gaza. The 'Septet,' an inner cabinet of seven ministers, met to debate what could be the first major
change to the Gaza border restrictions that Israel imposed
after Hamas’s violent coup.
In spite of media reports to
the contrary, Netanyahu has resisted international pressure to lift the
naval blockade of Gaza.
Under
pressure from the US, Netanyahu is now willing to reconsider his
policy of closing the Gaza land passages to all but humanitarian
supplies.
Israel
in the past few months has increased the volume of goods entering Gaza
by 20 percent and allowed more types of items into the Strip.