"Despite of Hamas’ terror regime that calls clearly for the destruction of the State of Israel, we promote extensive civil policy towards the Gazan residents.
As part of this policy, over 1000 crossings are registered every day at the Erez Crossing for medical treatments, business affairs, conferences and more. Unfortunately, Hamas tries to exploit the civil policy as it harms the Gazan residents.
All sorts of goods enter Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing. Following credible information, Hamas exploits those goods for terror purposes. The entry of dual use material, which may be used for terror purposes, requires the examination of the security forces.
Every day, over 850 trucks loaded with medical supply, construction materials, food and so on into Gaza. As of today, over 2 million tons of goods enter Gaza since the beginning of 2016.
You can see expansion of our civil policy towards Gaza over the course of 2014, 2015, 2016:
2014: 1,017,628 million tons of goods entered Gaza as 143,264 crossings were registered
2015: 4,314,941 million tons of goods entered Gaza as 361,891 crossings were registered
2016: 2,222,392 million tons of goods entered Gaza as 151,841 crossing were registered
The Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism (GRM) as agreed upon by the UN, the Palestinian Authority and Israel, works effectively as the numbers speak for themselves.
Since October 2014, over 5.2 million tons of construction material have entered Gaza for international projects, house repairs and road construction.
Over 100,000 houses are in different stages of the reconstruction process out of 130,000 houses damaged, according to the UN assessment.
Many international officials, including the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, have expressed their impression by the progress of the reconstruction.
As Israel allows the entry of construction materials in accordance with the demand and the need, the terror organization Hamas continues to exploit the Israeli civil policy and arm itself."
COGAT is charged with the implementation of Israeli Government policy in the territories of West Bank and Gaza Strip. Dateline also requested an interview with the Israeli Government, but they declined to appear on camera.
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