A massive U.N.-supervised project to rebuild Gaza got underway earlier last week, but officials in Gaza and Ramallah are already doubtful that it will bring immediate aid to residents of the battered strip. The reconstruction plan calls for a highly intricate monitoring system, with restrictive measures on the import and distribution of building materials.
This comes at the behest of the Israelis, who have long barred the entry of basic construction materials — including cement, metal pipes and steel — into Gaza, insisting that they are "dual use" items that Hamas could use to build underground tunnels for military purposes.
A new monitoring system will place security personnel and video cameras at distribution points for construction materials, and will vet both suppliers and buyers. And a central database, linked to the Palestinian Ministry of Civil Affairs, but available to Israeli intelligence agencies, will track material entering the Gaza Strip.
The details of this deal were revealed in a document named the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism, which outlined a U.N.-brokered agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Nearly fifty years after the infamous Red Army Faction trials, Germany’s maximum-security Stammheim Prison is once...
Denmark’s government was cautiously optimistic on Saturday following Donald Trump’s announcement of a deal on Greenland...
Israel plans to seek additional US weapons and defence capabilities as "compensation" after Washington approved the...
When Israel deployed its Iron Beam laser weapon for the first time last December, the announcement...
