The Gaza Strip was to receive its first cement shipment in a year on Wednesday as Israel prepared to reopen border crossings it shut down after militant rocket attacks breached a truce.
The Hamas rulers of the impoverished Palestinian enclave and the Israeli authorities said the cement would be shipped to Gaza on Wednesday as Israel eased its blockade.
Authorities initially spoke of five tonnes of cement, but later said five truckloads would be sent to Gaza. "They will be delivered in the course of the day," Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner told AFP.
He said this would mark the first time in one year that cement is being allowed into the territory.
On Wednesday morning, dozens of empty lorries lined up on the Palestinian side of the Sufa crossing waiting to load the shipments of cement and other supplies.
Israel, which blacklists Hamas as a terror group, imposed a tight embargo after the Islamists violently seized power in the densely-populated coastal strip more than a year ago.
As part of an Egyptian-mediated truce deal, Israel has agreed to gradually ease the embargo but kept the border crossings closed on most days since the ceasefire went into effect on June 19 in retaliation for rocket attacks.
On Wednesday it was to reopen the three crossings used to deliver fuel, grain and other basic goods to Gaza.
A total of about 150 truckloads were expected to be shipped into Gaza on Wednesday, Lerner said. Before the truce an average of 60 truckloads made their way into the impoverished sliver of land where the majority of the 1.5 million population rely on foreign aid to survive.
The Rafah crossing with Egypt, the only one that bypasses Israel, was also open on Wednesday for a second day to allow 350 Palestinians, including people in need of medical care, to leave the Gaza Strip, officials said.
Hamas has insisted it is respecting the truce and trying to prevent other armed groups from firing rockets at southern Israel. The Hamas authorities have vowed to arrest anyone who carries out such attacks.
Two people were lightly wounded on June 24 when three rockets were fired at southern Israel. The Islamic Jihad movement claimed the attack but later agreed to abide by the ceasefire.
On June 26, a rocket fired by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group loosely linked to the Fatah movement of secular Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, hit near the Israeli town of Sderot.
On Monday a rocket landed in an open field in southern Israel, causing no damage or casualties. No one claimed responsibility for the attack.
Palestinians and UN officials have said Israeli soldiers had also violated the truce, firing shots across the border into Gaza several times, wounding at least two people.
In the latest incident on Tuesday, a Palestinian woman, Aisha Ataya, 35, was shot in the foot near the border in southern Gaza, according to Palestinian medics.
The Israeli army denies wounding anyone, saying it only fired warning shots in the air.
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