In an effort to show positive movement on the peace process in advance of Netanyahu’s 7/6 meeting with Obama, Israel releases its new guidelines for the entry of goods to Gaza in keeping with its 6/20 cabinet decision, issuing 2 lists of (1) prohibited goods, which include all weapons and munitions, and (2) restricted “dual use” items with military or terrorist applications (including many common chemicals and fertilizers, optical equipment, knives). Israel also itemizes 19 permitted construction goods allowed for import only for PA or internationally supervised projects. Israeli DM Barak personally briefs Abbas, Fayyad on Israel’s steps to ease the Gaza blockade and improve security and economic coordination in the West Bank. (NYT, WT 7/6; WJW 7/8; OCHA 7/9)
IDF troops on the n. Gaza border fire warning shots at Palestinians scavenging for construction materials 700 m fr. the border, seriously wounding a 13-yr.-old boy. Israeli naval vessels fire on Palestinian fishing boats off the c. Gaza coast, seriously wounding a 14-yr.-old boy and damaging the boat. In the West Bank, the IDF patrols in Tulkarm and neighboring Dayr al-Ghusun in the morning and Bidya village in the afternoon, making no arrests; enters Kafr Lakif village nr. Qalqilya in the afternoon, raiding a metal workshop and arresting 2 Palestinians; fires rubber-coated bullets, tear gas, stun grenades at Palestinians holding a nonviolent demonstration against settlement expansion in Bayt Jala (injuring 4, including 1 journalist); conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches nr. Qalqilya, Salfit. Israeli tax authorities search Palestinian shops in East Jerusalem’s al-Misrara market, seizing the truck of one shop, releasing it later in the day after the owner pays $13,000 in back taxes. (PCHR 7/7; OCHA 7/9)