Israel aims to lift criticized pasta ban

JERUSALEM — For more than seven weeks, the international aid group Mercy Corps has been trying to send 90 tons of macaroni to the Gaza Strip as part of a global campaign to help the 1.4 million Palestinians there rebuild their lives after Israel's recent 22-day military operation.

Israel, which controls most of what goes into and out of Gaza, has said no repeatedly.

At first, Israeli officials said they wanted to make sure the macaroni wasn't destined for a Hamas charity. Then they said macaroni was banned because they didn't consider it an essential food.

On Wednesday, days after U.S. lawmakers raised questions about the macaroni ban, Israeli authorities said they were preparing to give the pasta a green light.

For the international aid community, the dispute is emblematic of the red tape and political maneuvering that have stymied efforts to rebuild Gaza.

"We're at the end of our rope," said David Holdridge, the head of Middle East emergency-relief efforts for Portland, Ore.-based Mercy Corps. "This is just ridiculous. It's absolutely absurd."

The Israeli restrictions are expected to be a central issue in the coming days, when George Mitchell, President Obama's new Middle East special envoy, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrive for discussions about how to help Gaza without strengthening Hamas, its hard-line Islamist ruler.

"Aid should never be used as a political weapon," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Wednesday in Washington. "We'll try to push to get into Gaza as many supplies as possible."

The macaroni standoff drew the attention of U.S. lawmakers who made a rare trip last week to the Gaza Strip.

"Is someone going to kill you with a piece of macaroni?" Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., who joined Minnesota Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison in visiting Gaza, reportedly asked after hearing about the aid restrictions.

Along with macaroni, Israel has prevented aid groups from sending to Gaza everything from paper and crayons to tomato paste and lentils.

As international donors prepare to meet next week in Egypt to discuss a massive, coordinated global rebuilding initiative, Israel is making it clear it will block any projects that could help Hamas.

Israeli objections are expected to prevent Gaza's residents from reconstructing all the major government buildings that Israeli strikes destroyed, including the Palestinian Authority Gaza City parliament building, the presidential compound on the Mediterranean coast and police stations.

"We want to make sure that reconstruction for the people of Gaza is not reconstruction for the Hamas regime," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Ever since Hamas seized military control of Gaza in 2007 — by ousting forces loyal to pragmatic Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas — after it swept parliamentary elections the year before, Israel has effectively frozen most international development work by preventing most building materials from getting into Gaza.

Israel's latest military campaign in Gaza, aimed primarily at forcing Hamas to end its rocket barrages on southern Israel and its military buildup, caused an estimated $2 billion in damage.

Palestinian Authority officials estimated 4,000 homes were destroyed and 17,000 were damaged.