GAZA STRIP (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s authorities have placed a new restriction on Palestinian tomato farmers in the besieged Gaza Strip, one which will lead to their shipments of the fruit to markets in the occupied West Bank and Arab countries rotting more quickly.
Palestine’s Ministry of Agriculture said on Wednesday that the Zionist regime had asked the farmers to remove the crown of the tomato - namely the sepal and pedicel of each tomato that grows from the flower and keep the fruit attached to the stem - before they will allow trucks carrying the fruit to pass through the Karm Abu Salem crossing.
There was no immediate explanation from the Zionist regime authorities as to why they had asked for the removal.
The occupying regime has imposed a land, air and sea blockade against the Gaza Strip since 2007, controlling the movement of lorries passing to the regime and the West Bank through al-Mintar, Awdeh and Karm Abu Salem, three crossings administered by the occupying regime’s army and dedicated to commerce.
The ministry said 110 tons of various vegetables and fruits were allowed to pass from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank on Wednesday, having been blocked by the regime for the past 43 days.