Israel has allowed food and other supplies to enter the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip through a key commercial crossing that had been closed for months, Israeli and Palestinian officials said on Tuesday.
Defense Ministry official Peter Lerner said about 80 trucks would pass through the Kerem Shalom crossing in a trial run before it is officially reopened in accordance with an Egyptian-mediated truce between Israel and Hamas.
Kerem Shalom has been closed since April, when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a car at the crossing. Palestinian officials said some 15 trucks carrying canned food and fruit passed through on Monday and they were told more would follow on Tuesday.
Israel and Hamas agreed on a ceasefire in June. It calls on both sides to stop cross-border violence and on Israel to ease a blockade on the Gaza Strip that was tightened after the Islamist group seized control of the territory more than a year ago.
The truce has largely held, although Gaza militants have occassionally fired rockets into Israel and the Jewish state has periodically closed its borders with the coastal enclave.
Lerner said the trial run was meant to test repairs and improvements made at the border terminal and that it would reopen fully "in the coming days".
Israel to replace worn out bank notes in Gaza
Israel will send guarded trucks from the Brink's Company to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in order to replace worn out currency accumulated by Palestinians, Army Radio reported.
Israel is interested in preventing a situation in which Palestinians issue an independent currency that would compete with the Shekel.
The process, executed for the first time two weeks ago, involves two stages. First, NIS 3 million will be transferred to the Bank of Israel from various bank branches in the Gaza Strip. In the second stage, only after bills are checked for forgery, banks in the Strip will receive news bills equivalent to that amount.
The president of Gaza's Industrialist Union, Eli Chayat described the process as a crucial one, one that will make life easier for Gazans and improve trade.
"Since the blockade in Gaza, they haven't exchanged any money," Chayat said. "This is not a one-time problem. Every month we deal with the same problem and beg the Israeli side. Either invest money or exchange it," he urged.
Sources in Jerusalem emphasized that the process does not involve the flow of new funds to the Hamas government, rather the process is solely a technical exchange intended to maintain the quality of Israel's currency. In the two years since the blockade, tens of thousands of torn and discarded bills have accumulated.
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