GAZA CITY: Israel yesterday allowed the export of Gazan cucumbers to the West Bank for the first time in seven years, a Palestinian official at the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing said.
“A first lorry-load of cucumbers from Gaza reached Hebron in the southern West Bank,” said Raed Fattuh, head coordinator for the Palestinian Authority at the Kerem Shalom crossing between southern Gaza and Israel.
In an Arabic-language posting on Twitter, the Israeli army confirmed that 10 tonnes of cucumbers from Gaza had crossed into the West Bank and they would be followed by “a tonne of fish on Sunday”.
According to Fattuh, Israel has “recently authorised the transportation of both fish and agricultural products from Gaza to the West Bank after having banned it” since 2007.
Israel first imposed a blockade on Gaza in 2006 after militants there snatched one of its soldiers, but the measure was significantly tightened a year later when the Islamist Hamas movement forcibly seized control of the territory.
AFP
