Israel to lift tight controls over Gaza reconstruction materials

Now that the Palestinian Authority has assumed control of the Gaza Strip crossings, the next step is to make it easier for builders to get reconstruction materials across the border and to suspend the current system, which Gaza contractors say is disastrous.
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A Palestinian man stands next to a truck loaded with bags of cement at the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and the southern Gaza Strip, May 23, 2016. - REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
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Khaled Abu Amer
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israel has agreed to suspend on Jan. 1 the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism (GRM), a deal Palestinian contractors say has put many of them out of business and cost the Contractors Union millions of dollars a month, according to a representative of the new consensus government.

“We received a positive response from the Israeli government regarding our demand for the suspension of the GRM," Mufid al-Hasayneh, the minister of public works and housing for the new consensus government and a representative of the Palestinian presidency, told Al-Monitor.

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