Israel Targets Gaza Businesses

MAGHAZI REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip — Before his clothes factory was brought to rubble by Israeli tanks and bulldozers in the Maghazi refugee camp in northern Gaza, Ahmad Abdel Jawwad used to run a lucrative business, selling all his production to the Israeli market.

"My future is in ruins," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Monday, July 24, standing on the debris of broken sewing machines.

Abdel Jawwad opened his hard-won factory two years ago, and before the Israeli blockade on Gaza business was booming.

"The factory made clothes destined exclusively for the Israeli market," he said, bending down from time to time to pick up a roll of cloth or a pack of t-shirts that had somehow survived intact.

The Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip, which started on June 28 under the pretext of retrieving a soldier taken prisoner by Palestinian resistance groups, has exacted a heavy toll on Palestinian economy.

With the Gaza Strip's main power plant knocked out on the first day of the assault, Palestinians had to close their businesses and sell their stocks almost for free.

Many of them joined a long queue of jobless Palestinians with statistics showing that unemployment rate hit the scary 40 percent mark, while 70 percent of households are living below the poverty line.

How to Survive?

Now Abdel Jawwad and some 70 breadwinners have lost their livelihood and do not know what the future holds for them.

"I have 10 people to feed from my work in this factory. How are we going to live now?" one of the employees said with a heavy heart.

The ruins of Jawad's factory became a playground for children, playing with empty shell casings from the machine gun bullets fired by Israeli soldiers during their assault on Maghazi.

Karen Abu Zeid, head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, was "horrified" when she visited the refugee camp on Saturday, July 22, by the extent of the destruction caused by the Israeli army.

"We don't quite understand why every economic venture has to be destroyed," she said standing near Abdel Jawwad's demolished factory.

She said 16 people were killed in Maghazi in recent days, 125 were wounded and that some 80 families were now without houses.

Up to 118 Palestinians and only one Israeli soldier have been killed in the impoverished territory since Israel launched its offensive last month.