"A stitch-up? Gaza's hopes for a renewed clothing industry", 5 September 2016

Mohammad Abu Shannab runs a clothing manufacturing factory in a northern district of Gaza City. But where he once had 40 workers behind the machines, just 15 remain.

Abu Shannab has been in the business since 1986, but in 2007, he and many other employers were forced to greatly slow down output, due to the imposition of the Israeli siege.

"Only over the past five months, have I been able to expand my working capacities, as Israel last year eased some of the restrictions on imports and exports to and from the territory," Abu Shannab told The New Arab...

Since 2007, Abu Shannab's workers have been largely restricted to producing clothes for the local market in Gaza - mainly uniforms for Gazan school children and some long dresses for their mothers.

Rafiq Omar, a veteran member of Abu Shannab's staff [told The New Arab]

"I myself have been working here for the past 25 years and I do remember very well how our workload was, before 2007. During that time, we used to work 26 days a month, in addition to several overtime working hours,"...

"But since 2007, we have been working five to 10 days a month. We hope that the cycle of production will soon start running the way it used to run, 10 years ago."

Abu Shannab says the recent easing of restrictions was not enough for that to happen.

"Actually, what we hope for is that Israel reopens the northern Eretz crossing, which was recently opened for the entry of new vehicles into the coastal territory... Delivering our goods through the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza has proved costly and time-consuming," said the 60-year-old...

Tayseer al-Ostaz, owner of the al-Ostaz factory, and head of the Gaza-based Union of Garment Manufacturers, told The New Arab that the recent ease of travel restrictions had been of some limited help...

Manufacturer Monther Alharazeen lost his factory and his home in 2014, when Israeli missiles fell on both, in Shujaiya, a neighbourhood in the east of Gaza. He took a bank loan and sold a small piece of land and has been able to import 40 modern machines to rebuild his production capacity...

"Since then, I have not been able to produce for the local market, simply because of a shortage of power supply. If I am to use generators, I will not be able to even cover the running costs. We demand real support for our battered sector from the local authorities - otherwise, we cannot compete."

Gaza-based merchants once dealt almost exclusively with locally produced clothes...[b]ut with the deterioration of the sector over the past decade, a majority of retailers have turned to imported goods...

Israel has prevented the entry of modern leather-working machinery to the coastal enclave, meaning the leather industry has been particularly badly affected among the collapse of Gaza's industries.

"Israel [also] banned import of some basic materials for leather production, such as dyes and chemical substances like sodium and chlorine. All under the pretext of 'double use', mainly military use," said a spokesperson at Gaza's Ministry of Industry...

Just 120 of 900 plants are running. Still, there's hope that the recent relaxation on exports will improve the economy and in recent months, 35 plants have begun filling orders for Israeli markets.

But getting the products out of the Gaza Strip will be slow.

There used to be six commercial crossings - now there's just one - making it very hard for Palestinians in Gaza to do business...