Israel bans export of Palestinian agricultural products abroad: Palestinian officials

Israel banned the export of Palestinian agricultural products from the West Bank and Gaza to the world, Palestinian officials said on Friday.

The Palestinian Authority Ministry of National Economy said in a press statement that Israel prevented Palestinian trucks carrying agricultural products from passing through roadblocks controlled by the Israeli army in the West Bank.

"Over the past two days, the Israeli authorities prevented Palestinian trucks from passing through Israeli army roadblocks and informed Palestinian exporters that exporting agricultural products abroad is banned," said the statement.

The statement said that the decision of Israeli Minister of Defense Naftali Bennett prevents Palestinian agricultural products from reaching not only the Israeli markets, but also the entire world.

The statement said that among the agricultural products that were banned from being exported are dry dates and olive oil.

Khaled al-Osaily, Palestinian minister of economy, announced on Monday that his ministry decided to ban the entry of the Israeli products to the Palestinian markets.

Al-Osaily said that the decision was an immediate response to Bennett's decision of banning the entry of Palestinian agricultural products to Israel.

Statistics shows the value of Palestinian agricultural products exported to Israeli markets reached 88 million U.S. dollars in 2018. That amount accounts for nearly 68 percent of the total Palestinian agricultural exports to the world.