Israel today published a list of goods - mainly weapons and materials that can be used to make them - that it will not let into the Gaza Strip under a policy to ease its blockade of the Palestinian territory.
The list was published 15 days after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on June 20th that he would ease the blockade and hours before he flies to Washington for talks tomorrow with US president Barack Obama.
The United Nations welcomed the plan to liberalise rules on the import of goods to the Gaza Strip but urged Israel to lift a ban on exports from the Palestinian territory to improve the economy there.
"The decision now by the Israeli government to substantially ease the closure can only be welcomed by me," UN Middle East envoy Robert Serry told Reuters after Israel published the list during a news conference in Jerusalem.
The White House also welcomed the list's publication.
"We believe the list of restricted goods for Gaza announced today will make a significant improvement in the lives of people in Gaza, while keeping weapons out of the hands of Hamas," said spokesman Tommy Vietor, referring to Gaza's Islamist rulers.
"This is an important step in implementing the new policy announced by Israel two weeks ago. The president looks forward to discussing it with the prime minister tomorrow," he added.
The softening of a policy, criticised as collective punishment of Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinians to weaken Hamas, followed an Israeli raid on a blockade-running flotilla in which nine Turkish activists were killed.
Under the old rules, Israel banned everything it wanted under a blockade on the impoverished enclave.
UN envoy Serry, who has described the blockade as unsustainable and unacceptable, said it was important that Israel allowed exports out of the territory as it was the only way to ensure that its devastated economy could recover.
"I also hope that very soon we will be seeing exports. Because how can you have a functioning Gazan economy without having exports also facilitated," he said.
Citing security concerns, Israel bars exports from Gaza and the Israeli military has strict rules for granting permission to Palestinians wanting to leave the Hamas-controlled territory.
Such permissions are almost always limited to people seeking medical treatment in Israel.
Israeli army general Eitan Dangot said the list included more than 3,000 materials that Israel feared could be used by Hamas and other militants in Gaza to manufacture weapons and to rebuild military facilities destroyed in a three-week offensive that the Jewish state launched there in December 2008.
He said Israel was also working to increase the flow of goods into Gaza through border crossings controlled by the army. He said in a few weeks some 350 trucks of goods would go through the crossings per day, up from 80 trucks a day under old rules.
Under the new rules, Israel will let in building materials only for housing projects approved by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and supervised by international organisations. Hamas does not recognise the legitimacy of the PA, based in the West Bank.
The projects included deal with schools, health facilities, water treatment and sanitation.
Mr Dangot said Israel had so far approved 31 such projects and 45 more would be given the green light soon.
Israel has been under pressure to ease its blockade since the May 31st raid on ships bringing aid to Gaza. Israel says the nine Turkish activists killed were waiting to attack Israeli commandos but the outcome sparked an international outcry.
Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the Turkish Hurriyet newspaper that Ankara would cut ties with Israel unless it receives an apology over the raid.
Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman told reporters during a visit to Latvia that his country had no intention of apologising.
Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Israel, cancelled joint military operations and barred Israeli military aircraft from Turkish airspace after the incident.
Reuters