NAZARETH (PIC)– Israeli press sources revealed that the government there has employed formulas for the past three years to tighten its siege on the Gaza Strip.
Ha’aretz reported that the coordinator of government activities in the territories (COGAT) has been working for three years on mathematical equations to monitor food and basic products entering the Gaza Strip to ensure the entry of no more and no less than what Israel approves.
COGAT used for example the formula (C = Z – Y 0.56RX) to monitor the supply of meat. The formula (Z/C=D) shows how many days remain until stored products will run out in Gaza.
The paper added that to implement the government’s decision to siege the Gaza Strip COGAT in conjunction with other authorities established regulations for allowing entry of goods and monitoring and measuring the food supply in the Strip.
These regulations remained in effect until the announcement of a government policy change in wake of the Freedom Flotilla massacre on May 31.
These documents were drafted during the period Gen. Amos Gilad served as Israel’s interim coordinator of government activities in the territories. He allowed for the document to be published in wake of changing policies and because there no longer remained any security reasons that would prevent publishing them.
COGAT sources said calculations were configured in consultation with the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture and in consideration of family consumption rates in Gaza according to the Palestinian Authority’s Central Bureau of Statistics in 2006.
The regulations fell within the framework of Israeli government decisions to control the amounts and types of goods approved to enter the Gaza Strip taking into consideration several factors including the necessity of the product for meeting humanitarian needs the impact of the product’s use especially on the status of the Hamas government international community demands and available alternatives for the goods.
Last year 40 types of goods were permitted to enter out of about 4000 which were traded in the Strip before the siege suggesting that the types of goods allowed into the area have increased gradually in wake of the Freedom Flotilla massacre. Gaza products are still banned for export.
