The United Nations has brokered a deal to allow construction material into Gaza to repair the massive damage caused this summer by Operation Protective Edge, while ensuring that the material is not used to build tunnels to attack Israel.
Material for both private and international projects is included in the deal, which was announced by the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process Robert Serry at a public portion of a Security Council meeting in New York on Tuesday.
Israel had halted the flow of building material for private construction into Gaza last October after the discovery of a major infiltration tunnel into Israel, although it did allow limited building material for international projects.
Israel controls the sole commercial crossing into Gaza at Kerem Shalom. Until the summer of 2013 construction material was also smuggled into Gaza through tunnels under the Egyptian border at Rafah. But Egypt closed all the tunnels, thereby making it virtually impossible for the last year for building material to enter Gaza.
Serry said his office had “brokered a trilateral agreement between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the UN to enable work at the scale required in the Strip, involving the private sector in Gaza and giving a lead role to the Palestinian Authority in the reconstruction effort, while providing security assurances through UN monitoring that these materials will not be diverted from their entirely civilian purpose.”
Some 18,000 homes were destroyed this summer, Serry said. He added that as part of the deal West Bank Palestinians would receive an additional 5,000 permits to work in Israel.
News of the deal comes in advance of the renewal of indirect talks in Cairo toward a permanent cease fire between Israel and Hamas. Opening up the crossings, is one of the key issues for the Palestinians.