Israel Matzav

Report: Israel and 'Palestinians' reach deal over Gaza construction materials

United Nations envoy Robert Serry says that Israel and the 'Palestinians' have reached a deal over the passage of construction materials into Gaza (Hat Tip: Gershon D).

Serry told the U.N. Security Council that the United Nations had brokered the deal "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 U.N. monitoring that these materials will not be diverted from their entirely civilian purpose."

Defense Minister Yaalon has warned that if the materials are used for building terror tunnels, the transfers will stop immediately.

"Building materials and reconstruction equipment will enter the Gaza Strip through a mechanism that Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai is building, together the with UN envoy Robert Serry and the Palestinian Authority," Ya'alon added.

But the defense minister warned that "if those materials are transferred to building tunnels - the transfer will stop immediately."

Of course, the terror tunnels were built from materials that Israel allowed in after the last two Gaza operations (Cast Lead and Pillar of Defense) in 2006 and 2008-09, respectively, and either the IDF didn't pick up on it or decided that they could not stop the materials from being diverted. Why will this time be different? What could go wrong? 

Labels: Gaza, Gaza construction, Hamas, Moshe Yaalon, Operation Cast Lead, Operation Pillar of Defense, Operation Protective Edge, Robert Serry, terror tunnels

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:53 PM