One of the major items that Israel had not allowed into Gaza before the current "calm" was cement. Human rights organizations and others complained bitterly about how this cement shortage was affecting Gazans' lives.
So now that Israel has allowed many truckfuls of cement into Gaza, what is happening to it?
Everything that goes into Gaza, either from Egyptian tunnels or from Israel, gets taken by Hamas. Hamas takes everything it needs first and then places the rest on the market, heavily taxing it to ensure that the "international boycott" against that terror organization is meaningless.
Cement is a major item that Hamas covets. As the Shin Bet's Yuval Diskin testified yesterday, Hamas is using the cement it is receiving to build fortified bunkers and tunnels to transport and store weapons.
This is not just Israeli propaganda. Even last January, when Hamas breached the wall to Egypt, it was reported that Hamas was taking delivery of hundreds of bags of cement to build bunkers and tunnels.
And since the story of Israel cruelly blocking shipments of concrete from poor starving Gazans is so much more compelling than that of Hamas taking the concrete from those same citizens for aggressive purposes, the media and world community yawns. Human rights organizations are silent and the UN, which just last week said that the "calm" has not helped Gazans in their daily lives, wholly blames Israel.
Big surprise there.
