{"id":11704,"date":"2018-08-16T07:28:45","date_gmt":"2018-08-16T07:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=11704"},"modified":"2018-08-16T07:28:45","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T07:28:45","slug":"israel-lets-food-goods-back-into-gaza-in-sign-of-easing-tensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=11704","title":{"rendered":"Israel lets food, goods back into Gaza in sign of easing tensions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nGAZA CITY:\u00a0Israel allowed commercial goods back into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, in a sign of an easing of tensions as neighboring Egypt pursued a long-term cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian enclave\u2019s dominant armed faction.<\/p>\n

\nBut the prospect of an agreement between Israel and Hamas prompted concern within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s right-wing government that Hamas would take advantage of any respite from fighting to build up its rocket arsenal.<\/p>\n

\nAt Israel\u2019s Kerem Shalom commercial crossing with Gaza, consignments of fruits and vegetables, fuel and construction material moved into the territory of 2 million people on Wednesday morning, a Reuters camera crew said.<\/p>\n

\nIsrael announced on Tuesday it would lift the commercial goods ban it imposed on July 9 in response to the launching by Palestinians of incendiary balloons across the frontier.<\/p>\n

\nThere have been fewer reports in recent days of such incidents, which have burned large tracts of agricultural land and forests in southern Israel.<\/p>\n

\nIsrael also expanded Gaza\u2019s fishing zone, in waters under Israeli naval blockade, from 3 to 9 nautical miles off the southern coast and to six nautical miles in the north, the head of Gaza\u2019s fishermen\u2019s union said.<\/p>\n

\nThe Oslo interim peace accords in the early 1990s set a 20 nautical mile limit, which was never implemented. Since then the zone has ranged in size between 3 and 6 nautical miles.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe are hoping for a big catch at 9 miles now,\u201d said Khader Baker, 25, who owns two fishing boats. \u201cThere had been almost no fish within 3 miles. We nearly starved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nPrior restrictions on the import of commercial goods that Israel says could also be used for military purposes remained in effect, a Palestinian border official said. He said they included balloons and tires.<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nComprehensive truce\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nEgypt and the UN have been trying to broker a comprehensive truce to prevent more fighting and to ease the deep economic hardship in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\nHamas officials said Palestinian factions were in Cairo to discuss terms for a cease-fire with Israel, whose security Cabinet convened on Wednesday to consider the issue.<\/p>\n

\nIsraeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who heads the ultranationalist Jewish Home party in the governing coalition, put Netanyahu on notice that his faction would vote against an agreement with Hamas.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis \u2018quiet\u2019 will give Hamas total immunity so that it can rearm itself with tens of thousands of rockets,\u201d Bennett said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\nFor more than a decade Gaza has been controlled by Hamas and subject to an Israeli-Egyptian blockade that has wrecked its economy, creating what the World Bank has described as a humanitarian crisis with shortages of water, electricity and medicine.<\/p>\n

\nIsrael says it has no choice but to enforce its blockade to defend itself against Hamas, a group that has called for its destruction.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GAZA CITY:\u00a0Israel allowed commercial goods back into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, in a sign of an easing of tensions as neighboring Egypt pursued a long-term cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian enclave\u2019s dominant armed faction. But the prospect of an agreement between Israel and Hamas prompted concern within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s right-wing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}