Gaza gets chocolate but no cement

If you have cash to spare in Gaza, you can treat your children to new varieties of chocolate Israel has just let in for the first time in a few years, or splash out on new tableware it allowed into the territory this week.
If you need cement and steel to rebuild a home destroyed by war, you'll have to wait a bit longer.
Israel is still deciding exactly what it will and will not allow into Gaza under a new approach toward the enclave, which it has blockaded for four years. As it changes the policy, some previously banned goods have started to flow across the border.
As yet, there is no sign of the basic materials and machine parts which aid workers and businessmen say Gaza needs if the homeless are to be rehoused and the economy is to be revived to alleviate growing poverty attributed to the blockade.
Facing an international outcry over its lethal raid on a Turkish aid ship that tried to break the embargo last month, Israel announced on June 20 that it would ease the blockade.
The announcement was welcomed by foreign governments, which have urged Israel to lift or ease the embargo.
The steps taken by Israel so far have disappointed Palestinians who want ready access to materials such as cement, not consumer goods which are plentiful for the few with spare cash.
Gaza has yet to rebuild from Israel's 2008-2009 offensive against Hamas, the Islamist movement, which governs here, and the stated target of the blockade, imposed because of the group's hostility toward Israel.
Over the past two weeks, the easing of the embargo has allowed grocers to fill their shelves with cornflakes, cakes, biscuits, shampoo and razor blades supplied through the Kerem Shalom crossing to Gaza.
Like most items, these goods were available, if expensive, from black marketeers who have been filling the supply gap by bringing in merchandise through tunnels from Egypt, Gaza's main supply route for the past two years.