Israel lets Gaza merchants import ‘dual use’ items banned to aid groups — report |
Israel is operating a parallel import system into Gaza that allows commercial traders to bring in goods barred to humanitarian organizations, including items classified by Israel as “dual-use,” The Guardian reported Thursday.
COGAT, the defense ministry body that oversees aid deliveries to Gaza, denied giving preferential treatment to commercial imports.
Lifesaving items – including some medical and shelter equipment – appear on an Israeli blacklist of dual-use items, which the government says must be tightly restricted because they could be exploited and weaponized by Hamas or other terror groups in the Strip.
Despite this, Israeli authorities have, for at least a month, let private businesses bring several dual-use goods – including generators and metal pallets – through the same checkpoints that currently block such items for aid groups, the Guardian said.
The equipment is now being sold openly in Gaza markets, said the news outlet, citing military, diplomatic and humanitarian sources.
“It seems highly improbable that the Israelis don’t know about them,” the outlet quoted an unnamed diplomatic source as saying. “It’s very shocking that these things are able to enter through commercial channels.”
Gazan-born analyst Ahmed Fouad........