OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC)– The European Union on Sunday belied Israeli claims that a shipment of its humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip contained more than six tons of potassium nitrate.
EU spokeswoman Alix deMauny said the bloc distributes its food aid through U.N. agencies rather than directly and does not export any sugar to Gaza.
“Based on the information received it appears that these bags cannot be confused with any kind of EU humanitarian aid” deMauny said. “We would consider it an isolated criminal act and we condemn it.”
The IOF claimed that it seized on Saturday a truckload of potassium nitrate while en route to Gaza and displayed video footage of the haul which showed white sacks with the spray-painted label: ‘EEC 2 Sugar Exported from EU’.
Potassium nitrate is used to make explosives and power homemade rockets.
The Hebrew state is sealing off the entire Gaza Strip since the start of 2006 when Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections and tightened the siege further after Hamas took over control of the Strip in June 2007 threatening a human disaster in the impoverished Strip.
