Hamas authorities on Tuesday refused to receive aid and supplies to the Gaza Strip through Israel, stressing that Israel must first free pro-Palestinian campaigners who were onboard an aid flotilla.

Israel can send aid that Gaza flotilla had carried to the coastal enclave "only if the shipments are complete and when Israel release all activists who were onboard the ships, Ziad Al- Zaza, Hamas' Minister of Economy, told Xinhua.

"The priority is to release the detained activists," Al-Zaza added...

...Today, Israel allowed part of the aid, which originally included construction materials and medical supplies, to Gaza through one of its land crossing points, but Hamas refused to let that shipment in, witnesses told Xinhua...

...According to the security sources, despite Hamas' objection, the unloading of the goods at Ashdod Port continues. Port workers and Defense Ministry elements have been working to unload the cargo since the ships docked on Monday, and Tuesday night, eight trucks containing medical equipment, toys, clothing and medicine arrived at the Kerem Shalom crossing.

The cargo was unloaded at the crossing, but has yet to be transferred to the Palestinian side. The Israel Defense Forces, the Defense Ministry, and government sources will continue with their attempts to coordinate the transfer of the goods into Gaza.

A COGAT statement said, "We will continue to work to coordinate the transfer of the humanitarian goods into the Gaza Strip, in coordination with the international community and the Palestinian Authority, as was declared before the flotilla arrived."...

...Colonel Moshe Levy, head of the Gaza Coordination and Liaison Office, said that "there was no need for this cargo. The same goods have been sent into Gaza over the past year on a regular basis. There were more than 100 electric scooters, and tons of medical equipment. This proves that the entire sail was propagandist and provocative and had nothing to do with aid."

...I will not say whether, in better times has been a larger product range than there was yesterday. But there was certainly no shortage of vegetables, fruits or any other ordinary, basic foods. Tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, watermelons, potatoes - mountains of these items in the many stalls.

I must admit I was a little surprised. Because when I call down here to my Palestinian friends, they tell me about all the problems and deficiencies, so I expected that the crisis was a little more clear.

And the first woman we interviewed in the market confirms this strange, contradictory, negative mindset:

"We have nothing," she said. We need everything! Food, drinks ... everything!"

It disturbed her not at least that she stood between the mountains of vegetables, fruit, eggs, poultry and fish, while she spun this doomsday scenario.

Yousuf al-Assad Yazgy owns a fruit and vegetable outlet here in the market. All his fruit is imported from Israel...