JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli officials at a crossing into Gaza took bribes in order to let goods into the coastal strip, a cable made public by WikiLeaks said.
The diplomatic cable from June 2006 said that "US businesses allege that corruption by Israeli officials at Karni crossing is impeding their access to the Gaza market."
It was published Thursday in the Norwegian daily newspaper Aftenposten, which says it has all 250,000 U.S. cables leaked to WikiLeaks.
The cable, compiled from sources in the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and the Jerusalem Consulate, said that goods from American companies worth $1.9 million waited at the Karni crossing for more than three months before being permitted into Gaza, Ynet reported.
The companies, including Coca-Cola, Caterpillar, Phillip Morris, Hewlett Packard and Motorola, had to pay fees up to 75 times more than normally required, according to the cable.
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