Israel still bans 400 kinds of raw materials used in Gaza industry: official

Israel still bans the shipment of 400 different kinds of raw materials to the Gaza Strip that are used in industry, a senior Palestinian official said Sunday.

Jamal al-Khudari, an independent lawmaker and chairman of the Popular Committee to Defy the Israeli Blockade, said in an emailed press statement that "the Israeli occupation lists these materials in the list of forbidden goods."

"The Israeli occupation carefully chooses the list of goods and materials in a way that keeps the cycle of industry blocked and consequently, this keeps thousands of workers, engineers and experts unemployed," said al-Khudari.

He went on saying that the sector of industry in the Gaza Strip is basically based on these kinds of raw materials that are used in very important products that can compete with imported products to the enclave.

"The ongoing endless Israeli measures against the industrial and commercial sectors had mounted the populations' suffering and led to the closure of 80 percent of factories in the entire Gaza Strip," said al-Khudari.

He insisted that these measures "are violating all international laws," adding that "what Israel does against the Gaza Strip is clearly a collective punishment and a war crime." He called on Israel to lift the siege and reopen all the closed crossings.

In the summer of 2007, Israel imposed a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip following Islamic Hamas movement's violent takeover of the coastal enclave and considered the territory a hostile entity.

However, following the Israeli naval commandos attack on the Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010, Israel relaxed the blockade, but didn't lift it completely and kept banning materials. Endit