RAMALLAH: Israel is preventing the Palestinian Authority from transferring cash to the Gaza Strip to pay its workers and others hard hit by war, Western and Palestinian officials said yesterday. The cash restrictions also underscored the wider hurdles facing reconstruction, estimated to cost more than $2 billion, in the Gaza Strip, where 1.5 million Palestinians live.

Israel has told the United Nations and other aid groups planning for the rebuilding they must apply for project-by-project Israeli approval and provide guarantees none of the work will benefit Hamas.

Israel had no immediate comment on why the Palestinian Authority’s post-war cash shipments were being blocked. The restrictions were put in place long before fighting broke out on Dec. 27, with Israel arguing that Gaza had enough cash in circulation and that some of the money could end up with Hamas.

Middle East envoy Tony Blair, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank countered that the restrictions were crippling Gaza’s economy and undermining the Palestinian Authority, which adopted money laundering rules to prevent any of the money from going to Hamas and other groups.

It is unclear how Gaza’s reconstruction will be handled. “It’s a Pandora’s Box,” one senior diplomat said, citing the restrictions imposed by Israel and the international community. Reconstruction largely hinges on convincing Israel to lift restrictions on imports of cash and building materials, like steel and cement. Israel has long argued that such imports can be used by the group to rearm.

“The Gaza Strip was almost destroyed and it needs everything,” said Nabil Al-Zaeem, head of the Palestinian Commercial Service Co., one of Gaza’s largest cement importers. He said rebuilding would not happen “if things did not change regarding the flow of cement and other construction materials.”

Abbas’ government, headed by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, has asked Israel for permission to send more than $80 million to the Gaza Strip. That includes 243 million Israeli shekels ($62 million), the tender used in the Palestinian territories.

The shipment would cover salary payments to some 77,000 Palestinian Authority workers in Gaza who report to Fayyad, as well as pension and welfare payments for retirees and the poor.

Meanwhile, eight Israeli human rights organizations appealed to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to establish an independent committee that would investigate attacks on Gaza civilians during the Israeli offensive.

The organizations that launched the appeal, including B’Tselem, Gisha, Yesh Din and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), say that an independent investigation organization is necessary in order to establish whether international laws were broken by Israel. ACRI Attorney Limor Yehuda wrote that the claims were based on various incidents reported by the media as well as reports emerging daily from Gaza.

According to Yehuda, the “appalling” number of women and children killed during the operation as well as suspicions of violated combat regulations require an efficient and extensive investigation by an independent organization. She said Palestinian medical sources had reported at least 1,300 casualties in Gaza, 410 of which were children. Yehuda wrote that the two basic principles of combat regulations are “the distinction between fighters and civilians, and the principle of proportionality.” She added that these principles were intended to serve the highest purpose of humanitarian law, by minimizing the harm caused to civilians in times of conflict.

The organizations further claim that attacks on civilian buildings should not be carried out on general suspicions, but rather, only based on well-founded information. They said that the rocket fire by Palestinian groups on southern Israeli communities do not justify Israel’s violations of international law in Gaza.