Latest News

Tony Blair visits Kerem Shalom crossing to see how new policy can be implemented

Tony Blair said today that he hopes Israel’s change of policy towards Gaza would be implemented in the next two weeks. The Quartet Representative, who played a central role in working with the Israeli government to reverse the policy of restricting civilian goods entering the region, visited the Kerem Shalom crossing today to see how the new policy could be implemented on the ground.

As Israeli officials said that the crossing could see a significant increase in road shippings of essential goods when the liberalised policy comes into force, Tony Blair told Gaza businesspeople and civic leaders that he expected the number of imported goods to nearly triple within weeks. The policy implementation principles were announced after a meeting between Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Tony Blair on Sunday.

In an interview with the Jerusalem Post published earlier today, the Quartet Representative said that he had been discussing the easing of the restrictions with the Israeli Prime Minister for a long time, and well before the raid on the aid flotilla last month. “My argument was and always has been that there is a very clear distinction, the only distinction in the end you can sensibly justify, between the security needs of Israel and [the] daily life [needs of Gazans].”