(Updates number of trucks to 78, Hamas statement paragraph 5) By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA, June 22 (Reuters) - Israel began on Sunday to gradually ease its economic blockade of the Gaza Strip by allowing additional goods into the Hamas-ruled enclave but Palestinians said the increase in deliveries was meagre. Peter Lerner, spokesman for Israel's military coordinator for the Gaza Strip, said the army allowed 78 truckloads of food and commercial goods a day into the territory, up from about 60 before the truce took hold last Thursday. Israeli and Palestinian officials said trucks passed through the Israeli-controlled Sufa border crossing into the Gaza Strip in the morning. The goods were left there by the Israelis to be picked up in the afternoon by the Palestinians. Israel refuses to deal directly with Hamas. Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip a year ago from rival Fatah forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, said it deployed its security forces near Sufa "to prevent looting" and to ensure the goods are distributed in an orderly manner. Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the Islamist group will not be able to judge Israel's commitment to lifting the blockade "until they have removed the ban and the restrictions on the numbers and the types of materials and goods needed for our people in Gaza." Raed Fattouh, who oversees the supply of goods to Gaza on behalf of Abbas's government in the occupied West Bank, questioned whether Israel was serious about easing the embargo. While Israel increased the number of trucks, it did not expand the range of goods allowed through the crossing, he said. Israel had let an estimated 100 truckloads per day through the border crossings of Kerem Shalom and Sufa until mid-April, when Gaza militants attacked Kerem Shalom, causing heavy damage. Since that attack, Kerem Shalom has been shut down and the impoverished Gaza, home to 1.5 million people, has been receiving an estimated 60 truckloads of supplies a day through Sufa, Lerner said. Palestinian officials said 80 truckloads entered the Gaza Strip on Sunday. But officials on both sides played down the immediate impact on humanitarian and economic conditions in the territory. Israeli officials said last week that the army would, as a first step, increase supplies by an estimated 30 percent over pre-truce levels. Hamas officials said they expected Israel next week to expand the range of goods allowed into the Gaza Strip, provided the ceasefire holds. Under the Egyptian-brokered deal, Israel and Hamas have halted cross-border fighting, though officials on both sides remain deeply sceptical the calm will last. (Additional reporting by Joseph Nasr and Avida Landau in Jerusalem; Writing by Adam Entous; Editing by Catherine Evans)
A Palestinian worker loads fuel for the Gaza power plant near the Nahal Oz crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip June 22, 2008. Israel said on Sunday it had begun ...
