The amount of goods leaving the Gaza Strip for Israeli, West Bank, and international markets has already surpassed in the first quarter of 2015 the total amount recorded during the whole of 2014.
According to a briefing by UN OCHA, 234 truckloads of agricultural produce, furniture and garments exited Gaza during January-March, exceeding the 228 truckloads that left in 2014.
While an improvement, the average figure of 18 truckloads per week is a small fraction of the 219 truckloads that left Gaza weekly in the first half of 2007, prior to the blockade.
Israeli authorities permitted a partial resumption of commercial transfers of agricultural produce, furniture and garments from Gaza to the West Bank in November. This was followed in March by the first exports of agricultural products from Gaza into Israel since June 2007.
So far, only tomatoes and eggplants have been authorised for export; a wider variety of vegetables will reportedly be approved soon.
Prior to the imposition of a stringent blockade in 2007, around 77 percent of Gaza’s exports went to Israel and the West Bank; including the vast majority of garment and furniture production.
In 2005, the furniture sector in Gaza employed more than 5,500 workers and generated US$55 million in sales, almost 50 per cent of this derived from exports to Israel and abroad or transfers to the West Bank. Until 2007, the textile sector employed 25,000 workers, mostly women.
Meanwhile, Israeli authorities now allow Palestinian men over 55 and women over 50 with West Bank ID cards to enter East Jerusalem and Israel on a daily basis without a permit. This is expected to affect around 7 percent of the male population of the West Bank and 11 percent of females.