JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said Tuesday that it had agreed to allow a United Nations agency to bring building materials for 1,200 new housing units and 18 new schools into Gaza, one of the largest construction projects in the Palestinian coastal strip in years.

An Israeli military spokesman said the project came in addition to 130 others, including 14 schools, approved for construction by various agencies in Gaza.

Israel controls the cargo crossings into Gaza and has banned construction materials like concrete and steel from going in for fear that Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, would incorporate them into weapons and bunkers.

But after Israel’s war there in 2008-9 aimed at stopping Hamas’s rockets, and an Israeli attack on a pro-Palestinian aid flotilla a year ago that killed nine activists and led to widespread criticism of Israel’s Gaza blockade, Israelis agreed to allow construction products into Gaza if they were under the close supervision of international agencies.