Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised Western donors today that Israel would lift restrictions on food supplies entering the Gaza Strip after a row with Washington over blocked convoys of food.
The US government had protested to Mr Olmert over the seemingly random restrictions, which held up deliveries of certain types of pasta, cheese, jam and other food to 1.5 million Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave, devastated by an Israeli offensive earlier this year.
In one case, Israel blocked for weeks a World Food Programme shipment of chickpeas, used to make the Palestinian food staple hummus. Another aid group was unable to deliver nearly 90 tons of macaroni, which Israel deemed a non-essential item.
A senior Western diplomat said getting aid through the web of Israeli restrictions has become a "constant headache". Another called it a "distraction" from US-backed efforts to revive stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
The diplomats said Mr Olmert's office informed the United States, the European Union and the United Nations that all "foodstuff" would be allowed into the Gaza Strip.
"The policy of the government is clear. All food is humanitarian and all humanitarian supplies can go through, as is our policy. We have made sure that that is clear," a senior Israeli official said. "We want the process to be streamlined."
Israel says it has opened Gaza's border to larger amounts of food and medicine since its offensive, which destroyed some 5,000 homes and - according to the latest figures from a Palestinian rights group last week - killed 1,417 people.
But Western aid officials remained cautious, saying it was unclear whether instructions from the outgoing prime minister, likely to be formally replaced next month by right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu, would be followed by Israeli military officials who run border crossings with the Gaza Strip.
They said it was unclear whether restrictions on deliveries of other items, such as toilet paper, soap and toothpaste, would also be lifted. Gazans have relied on tunnels under their border with Egypt for such supplies, but Israel has been bombing these.
Mr Olmert is in his final weeks in office. Mr Netanyahu has been forming a government since a February 10th election and has vowed to take a harder line on Hamas than his centrist predecessor.
Reuters