OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel will partially reopen private sector trade with Gaza to reduce its reliance on humanitarian aid, the defence ministry civil affairs agency for the Palestinian territories said on Tuesday.

 

"As part of formulating the mechanism, a limited number of local merchants were approved by the defence establishment, subject to several criteria and strict security screening," COGAT said.

 

Israel has been fighting Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza for 22 months and imposed a total blockade on March 2, partially lifted in May to allow a US-backed private agency to open food distribution centres.

 

Aid convoys and airdrops by Arab and European militaries resumed last month, as UN-mandated expert reports warned famine was unfolding in the war-torn territory.

 

The COGAT statement said private sector deliveries would be paid for by monitored bank transfers and be subject to inspections by the Israeli military before entering Gaza, "to prevent the involvement of the Hamas terrorist organisation".

 

Permitted goods under the new mechanism will include food staples, fruit, vegetables, baby formula and hygiene products, COGAT said.

 

The agency said more than 300 aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday, a larger number than in previous days, and that hundreds more were "still queued up for UN pickup".

 

In addition, 120 pallets of aid were airdropped in cooperation with Belgium, Canada, Egypt, Germany, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, it added.

 

Hamas contested the figures, saying that only 95 aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday and that the majority of them were looted amid a "deliberate state of security chaos instigated by [Israel]".

 

The United Nations estimates that between 500 and 600 truckloads of aid a day are needed to meet the needs of Gaza's more than two million inhabitants.