Israel's lifting of restrictions on the import of construction materials into the Gaza Strip was helpful but has not affected the blockade imposed on the salient, a Palestinian official said Tuesday.
"Practically on the ground and in reality, there are no tangible ... relaxations of the unfair siege," said Maher Abu Sabha, the chief of the crossings and terminals authority run by Hamas.
His comments came as Israel started allowing daily shipments of 20 truckloads of construction raw materials, including gravel, to the private sector in the Gaza Strip for the first time in more than five years.
On Saturday, 17 truckloads of construction materials entered the Gaza Strip though the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, for projects funded by the Qatari government.
The equipment had previously been smuggled into the enclave though tunnels running under the border with the Sinai Peninsula.
An Israeli military spokesman, Major Guy Inbar, said allowing the trucks followed on from talks that Israel and Egypt have held since the informal, Egyptian-brokered ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel that ended eight days of fighting in November.
He said that from Israel's point of view, continuation of the shipments depended on calm in the area, and no further attacks on Israel by Gaza militants.
The shipments mark an easing of the tight blockade Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2006, following rocket and mortar attacks from the strip and the abduction of a soldier.
This was further tightened to a near-total closure in 2007, when Hamas seized sole control of the salient.
Only basic goods were allowed in to avoid a humanitarian crisis. The blockade eased slightly in 2010, after international criticism over Israel's takeover of a Turkish ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists headed for Gaza.
Since the blockade began, the only construction supplies allowed into the Gaza Strip were for international building projects approved by Israel.
Independent Gaza lawmaker Jamal al-Khudari, who is head of the Popular Committee to Confront the Siege, called on Israel to open all crossing points and "allow other products that the Gaza Strip is still in need of."