Israel to Supply Cattle to Gaza Amid Contagion Fears

ISRAEL - Israel is to start supplying cattle to Gaza in an exception to its blockade of the Hamas-run territory amid fears that unvaccinated livestock might otherwise be smuggled in from neighbouring Egypt.

28 March 2008

1 minute read

Asia

"As a test we will send in 400 head of cattle to ensure the supply of meat in the Gaza Strip," Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon said on Thursday.

"If this experiment works out well, we will repeat it every Friday," he told army radio.

The radio said Israel was worried about the risks of disease spreading to Israeli herds if unvaccinated Egyptian animals were smuggled into Gaza.

The impoverished, overwhelmingly aid-dependent territory of 1.5 million people has been under a crippling Israeli blockade since last June when the Islamist Hamas movement, boycotted by Israel as a terror group, seized control from forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

Source: AFP