RAMALLAH
Israel will begin easing restrictions on the entry of individuals and goods into the Gaza Strip within days, the Palestinian minister of civil affairs said Thursday.
"Israel will begin to facilitate the movement of Gazans to the West Bank and allow the entry of used cars for resale in Gaza," Hussein al-Sheikh told Anadolu Agency by phone.
"It will also grant work permits to a number of Gazans to allow them to do construction and carpentry work in Israel," he added.
"The decision will be evaluated later for the possibility of having more work permits granted in the future," al-Sheikh said.
Gazans have been banned from working in Israel since 2007, when Palestinian resistance faction Hamas assumed control of the blockaded coastal enclave.
Al-Sheikh said the agreement reached with Israel also called for the latter to allow the export of goods "in large quantities" from the Gaza Strip to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
He went on to say that Palestinian representatives had urged their Israeli counterparts to open all of Israel's border crossings with the embattled Gaza Strip.
The unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip – which is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians – jumped from 35 percent to a 50 percent following Israel's recent military onslaught on the coastal territory, according to figures released by the Palestinian government.
For seven weeks in July and August, Israel pummeled the Gaza Strip – with the stated aim of halting Palestinian rocket fire – until an August 26 cease-fire deal ended the conflict.
The offensive left more than 2,150 Palestinians dead and some 11,000 others injured – the vast majority of them civilians – while destroying thousands of homes and large swathes of the strip's infrastructure.
According to Israeli figures, 67 Israeli soldiers and five civilians were killed over the same period – the highest military death toll suffered by Israel since it lost 119 troops in its 2006 war on Lebanon.
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