Eight years later, Palestinian mail arrives in West Bank

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are about to receive a special delivery of more than 10 tonnes of mail that has been delayed by Israel for the past eight years.

Postal workers have been sorting through thousands of mail sacks in the West Bank city of Jericho for the past several days after Israeli authorities allowed the entry of the letters and packages from neighbouring Jordan.

The 10.5 tonnes of mail had been held in Jordan since 2010 because Israel would not permit direct transfer to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, Palestinian officials said. Mail for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the borders of which are under Israeli control, first passes through Israel, enabling it to perform security checks.