Pictures of Gaza siege
There are no doubt that the siege affected in the Palestinian civilians daily life. Cutting the fuel and the general blockade has many faces in the streets of Gaza strip and the first picture to it was with Abu Alkass Mini-Market in Gaza city.
"There have been rapid price increases over the last few months because of the closure. Three months ago, for instance, a litre of corn oil cost 19 Shekels (the equivalent of $4.5). Now it costs 29 Shekels ($7). The price of flour has also doubled; three months ago a kilo of flour was 2 Shekels. Now our customers have to pay 4 Shekels."
The Abu-Alkass mini-market has been a popular feature of central Gaza city for more than thirty years. Anwar Abu-Alkass has worked here since he was a teenager, and now manages the mini-market with his brother. "We used to have a lot of fresh goods on sale, but now the majority of our goods are dry products" he explains, as we wander round the mini-market aisles. "Every business has been affected by the closure – we used to sell lots of fresh milk and different kinds of cheese – but now we are forced to depend on two Zionist companies for our dairy imports. Their products are expensive for us, but we have no choice."
After declaring the Gaza Strip "A hostile entity" on 19 September last year, Zionist entity tightened its siege and closure of Gaza, adding additional restrictions on the movements of all civilians and goods, and limiting food imports to seven basic categories; flour, sugar, dairy products, rice, salt, oil and frozen foods, including frozen meat. Many foods and drinks are now only sporadically available, whilst others, such as Coca Cola and fresh fruit juice, completely disappeared off the shelves several months ago. Fresh meat is increasingly scarce in Gaza, as is imported chocolate and cheese. Alongside every other store, restaurant and food retailer in the Gaza Strip, Anwar Abu-Alkass has had to adapt to these restrictions whilst also trying to keep his business going.
During the six months since the siege and closure were tightened, food prices have spiralled across the Gaza Strip, and increasing numbers of families are now facing chronic food insecurity. 73% of the population of the Gaza Strip is now at least partially dependent on humanitarian food aid, making Gaza once of the most aid dependent communities in the world. The World Food Programme (WFP) recently expanded the number of people it is assisting across Gaza by an additional fifty thousand people. It is now providing food assistance to 300,000 civilians in the Gaza Strip. All food donors are facing logistical problems in securing the volume of humanitarian aid rations they need to distribute, also due to the closure.
Anwar Abu-Alkass says local food prices have also been forced up because retailers now have to pay heavier costs to try and secure goods that used to be easily available. "I send a truck to Rafah every day to buy whatever is coming through the border" he says. Though the southern Rafah border with Egypt is now officially closed for business, goods are still being brought across into Gaza, and with the other seven crossings into Gaza effectively sealed, many retailers depend on the trade from Rafah to keep their shops stocked.
In addition to food and drinks shortages, other commodities are now also coming off the shelves in Gaza. "The price of washing-up liquid has gone up from 6 Shekels to 15 Shekels in the last three months" says Anwar, "and I have very few supplies left. We are also running short of shampoo, washing powder, cleaning liquids and tissues. Even the goods that we can buy now are not always good quality – sometimes we can only get hold of lower quality brands for our customers, and that is not good for business."
The shelves in Abu-Alkass are full, and the store looks well-stocked. But Anwar points out that, as well as relying on dry goods with a long shelf life, he has empty refrigerators. "People want fresh goods like milk and cheese" he says. "They also want frozen meat and vegetables. The problem is, even if we did receive these fresh and frozen goods that people are always asking for, we cannot store them securely, because we also face power cuts every day." The power cuts that recently grabbed the world's attention when the Gaza Strip's sole power plant was forced to temporarily shut down, continue in Gaza on a daily and totally unpredictable basis.
Anwar and his brother employ seven staff to help them serve the hundreds of customers a day who visit the Abu-Alkass mini-market, but have just off two workers to try and cut their costs. Staff salaries have also been reduced, and Anwar says he is now forced to fill his shelves with lower quality items in order to keep his store full. "Two years ago we had twice as many good for sale" he says. "Our customers are loyal, but they want vegetables like okra, and fresh milk, and varieties of cheese and fresh meat, and we can't obtain any of these any more. The closure is affecting our business badly – and our customers are being denied quality and choice every day."
The second picture was with Hassan Sheikh Hijazi Flower Farm, when Hassan Sheikh Hijazi first opened his flower farm in 1991, it flourished. "We had a very good family business," he says. "We exported hundreds of thousands of flowers to Holland – and from there our flowers were sold across Europe. The traders knew our flowers were good quality - and Gaza was open for business."
With its mild coastal weather and well drained soil, the Gaza Strip is an ideal location for commercial flower farming. There are more than a hundred small flowers farms across the Gaza Strip, and they employ some 7,000 farm workers between them.
The majority of farms are located around Beit Lahia in northern Gaza; but Hassan Hijazi and his family live just outside Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, where they have a small flower farm of 24 donums (a donum is around 1,000 square metres). They grow carnations and chrysanthemums. After more then seventeen years as a commercial flower farmer, Hassan Hijazi is now head of the local Rafah Flower Farmers Union.
"Ten years ago farmers across Gaza were exporting 80 million flowers a year to Europe, including roses" he says. "But the last few years have been extremely difficult, and this one has been the worst yet. I exported exactly 20,000 flowers this year due to the closure. I have lost more than one million Shekels; but so has every flower farmer in Gaza. We are all just losing money now."
The average annual turnover of Gaza's commercial flower industry is $13 million. However, it costs the farmers more than $5 million to plant and maintain their flowers, with every donum of flowers costing around 30,000 Shekels ($7,500) to plant, plus another 1,000 Shekels ($250) to maintain. In a good year a donum can yield up to 120,000 flowers. According to the Palestinian Authority (PA), 45 million cut flowers were exported from Gaza in 2006, representing more than 3% of all exports from the Gaza Strip. But this year, according to the Beit Hanoun Agricultural Association, farmers in Gaza have been permitted to export just 5.5 million cut flowers, yielding a total profit of $28,000 between them. The closure is devastating Gaza's commercial flower industry, with some farmers resorting to uprooting thousands of flowers they can no longer afford to grow. In the last few weeks there have been demonstrations in Beit Hanoun and Rafah, with farmers offering bouquets women and girls – and feeding armfuls of loose flowers to cows and goats, to symbolise the wanton waste of their work.
Ahmed Fujou has worked on Hassan Hijazi's flower farm for the last thirteen years, and offers to show us around. We stroll down a mud track, and less than ten minutes later find ourselves surrounded by rows of greenhouses filled with ripe carnations. "We have fifty different shades of carnations" says Ahmed, as we wander amidst swathes of red and white, yellow and pink flowers. "We should have harvested all these flowers by now; but there is no point. We can't even sell the flowers we have harvested. Let me show you."
He guides us inside the farm warehouse, to a large industrial refrigerator. When he opens the door, it is stacked with carnations and chrysanthemums of every imaginable shade. "There are more than 100,000 flowers in here" he says. "But we can't export them because of the closure. We have another industrial refrigerator with the same number of flowers inside – we've been hoping to export at least some of them. But Gaza is closed – so we are going to have to turn the refrigerators off, and feed these flowers to the cattle. We can't even afford to pay the electricity bill." The closure of Gaza has imposed chronic shortages of electricity across Gaza daily.
We return to Hassan Hijazi's house for coffee, where we meet Hassan's son, Mohammed. "My father is sixty six year old now," says Mohammed. "He should be enjoying his retirement, but instead he is going to have to close his farm. But this issue is not just about my father – this is about the destruction of Gaza."
Hassan and Mohammed Hijazi say they are angry and frustrated that Zionist entity is effectively killing the entire farming industry across the Gaza Strip. But they also hold the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the European Union responsible for their silence in the face of the continuing closure.
"Shame on Zionist entity" says Mohammed Hijazi. "But shame on the Palestinian Authority, too. My father represents many local flowers farmers in southern Gaza, but no-one from the Ministry of Agriculture has even contacted us during this crisis. And shame on the European Union, because they have done nothing either. Why are they standing back in silence and allowing this to happen to us. Tell me – what is the security risk in exporting flowers?"
the source is : www.alqassam.ps/english
There are no doubt that the siege affected in the Palestinian civilians daily life. Cutting the fuel and the general blockade has many faces in the streets of Gaza strip and the first picture to it was with Abu Alkass Mini-Market in Gaza city.
"There have been rapid price increases over the last few months because of the closure. Three months ago, for instance, a litre of corn oil cost 19 Shekels (the equivalent of $4.5). Now it costs 29 Shekels ($7). The price of flour has also doubled; three months ago a kilo of flour was 2 Shekels. Now our customers have to pay 4 Shekels."
The Abu-Alkass mini-market has been a popular feature of central Gaza city for more than thirty years. Anwar Abu-Alkass has worked here since he was a teenager, and now manages the mini-market with his brother. "We used to have a lot of fresh goods on sale, but now the majority of our goods are dry products" he explains, as we wander round the mini-market aisles. "Every business has been affected by the closure – we used to sell lots of fresh milk and different kinds of cheese – but now we are forced to depend on two Zionist companies for our dairy imports. Their products are expensive for us, but we have no choice."
After declaring the Gaza Strip "A hostile entity" on 19 September last year, Zionist entity tightened its siege and closure of Gaza, adding additional restrictions on the movements of all civilians and goods, and limiting food imports to seven basic categories; flour, sugar, dairy products, rice, salt, oil and frozen foods, including frozen meat. Many foods and drinks are now only sporadically available, whilst others, such as Coca Cola and fresh fruit juice, completely disappeared off the shelves several months ago. Fresh meat is increasingly scarce in Gaza, as is imported chocolate and cheese. Alongside every other store, restaurant and food retailer in the Gaza Strip, Anwar Abu-Alkass has had to adapt to these restrictions whilst also trying to keep his business going.
During the six months since the siege and closure were tightened, food prices have spiralled across the Gaza Strip, and increasing numbers of families are now facing chronic food insecurity. 73% of the population of the Gaza Strip is now at least partially dependent on humanitarian food aid, making Gaza once of the most aid dependent communities in the world. The World Food Programme (WFP) recently expanded the number of people it is assisting across Gaza by an additional fifty thousand people. It is now providing food assistance to 300,000 civilians in the Gaza Strip. All food donors are facing logistical problems in securing the volume of humanitarian aid rations they need to distribute, also due to the closure.
Anwar Abu-Alkass says local food prices have also been forced up because retailers now have to pay heavier costs to try and secure goods that used to be easily available. "I send a truck to Rafah every day to buy whatever is coming through the border" he says. Though the southern Rafah border with Egypt is now officially closed for business, goods are still being brought across into Gaza, and with the other seven crossings into Gaza effectively sealed, many retailers depend on the trade from Rafah to keep their shops stocked.
In addition to food and drinks shortages, other commodities are now also coming off the shelves in Gaza. "The price of washing-up liquid has gone up from 6 Shekels to 15 Shekels in the last three months" says Anwar, "and I have very few supplies left. We are also running short of shampoo, washing powder, cleaning liquids and tissues. Even the goods that we can buy now are not always good quality – sometimes we can only get hold of lower quality brands for our customers, and that is not good for business."
The shelves in Abu-Alkass are full, and the store looks well-stocked. But Anwar points out that, as well as relying on dry goods with a long shelf life, he has empty refrigerators. "People want fresh goods like milk and cheese" he says. "They also want frozen meat and vegetables. The problem is, even if we did receive these fresh and frozen goods that people are always asking for, we cannot store them securely, because we also face power cuts every day." The power cuts that recently grabbed the world's attention when the Gaza Strip's sole power plant was forced to temporarily shut down, continue in Gaza on a daily and totally unpredictable basis.
Anwar and his brother employ seven staff to help them serve the hundreds of customers a day who visit the Abu-Alkass mini-market, but have just off two workers to try and cut their costs. Staff salaries have also been reduced, and Anwar says he is now forced to fill his shelves with lower quality items in order to keep his store full. "Two years ago we had twice as many good for sale" he says. "Our customers are loyal, but they want vegetables like okra, and fresh milk, and varieties of cheese and fresh meat, and we can't obtain any of these any more. The closure is affecting our business badly – and our customers are being denied quality and choice every day."
The second picture was with Hassan Sheikh Hijazi Flower Farm, when Hassan Sheikh Hijazi first opened his flower farm in 1991, it flourished. "We had a very good family business," he says. "We exported hundreds of thousands of flowers to Holland – and from there our flowers were sold across Europe. The traders knew our flowers were good quality - and Gaza was open for business."
With its mild coastal weather and well drained soil, the Gaza Strip is an ideal location for commercial flower farming. There are more than a hundred small flowers farms across the Gaza Strip, and they employ some 7,000 farm workers between them.
The majority of farms are located around Beit Lahia in northern Gaza; but Hassan Hijazi and his family live just outside Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, where they have a small flower farm of 24 donums (a donum is around 1,000 square metres). They grow carnations and chrysanthemums. After more then seventeen years as a commercial flower farmer, Hassan Hijazi is now head of the local Rafah Flower Farmers Union.
"Ten years ago farmers across Gaza were exporting 80 million flowers a year to Europe, including roses" he says. "But the last few years have been extremely difficult, and this one has been the worst yet. I exported exactly 20,000 flowers this year due to the closure. I have lost more than one million Shekels; but so has every flower farmer in Gaza. We are all just losing money now."
The average annual turnover of Gaza's commercial flower industry is $13 million. However, it costs the farmers more than $5 million to plant and maintain their flowers, with every donum of flowers costing around 30,000 Shekels ($7,500) to plant, plus another 1,000 Shekels ($250) to maintain. In a good year a donum can yield up to 120,000 flowers. According to the Palestinian Authority (PA), 45 million cut flowers were exported from Gaza in 2006, representing more than 3% of all exports from the Gaza Strip. But this year, according to the Beit Hanoun Agricultural Association, farmers in Gaza have been permitted to export just 5.5 million cut flowers, yielding a total profit of $28,000 between them. The closure is devastating Gaza's commercial flower industry, with some farmers resorting to uprooting thousands of flowers they can no longer afford to grow. In the last few weeks there have been demonstrations in Beit Hanoun and Rafah, with farmers offering bouquets women and girls – and feeding armfuls of loose flowers to cows and goats, to symbolise the wanton waste of their work.
Ahmed Fujou has worked on Hassan Hijazi's flower farm for the last thirteen years, and offers to show us around. We stroll down a mud track, and less than ten minutes later find ourselves surrounded by rows of greenhouses filled with ripe carnations. "We have fifty different shades of carnations" says Ahmed, as we wander amidst swathes of red and white, yellow and pink flowers. "We should have harvested all these flowers by now; but there is no point. We can't even sell the flowers we have harvested. Let me show you."
He guides us inside the farm warehouse, to a large industrial refrigerator. When he opens the door, it is stacked with carnations and chrysanthemums of every imaginable shade. "There are more than 100,000 flowers in here" he says. "But we can't export them because of the closure. We have another industrial refrigerator with the same number of flowers inside – we've been hoping to export at least some of them. But Gaza is closed – so we are going to have to turn the refrigerators off, and feed these flowers to the cattle. We can't even afford to pay the electricity bill." The closure of Gaza has imposed chronic shortages of electricity across Gaza daily.
We return to Hassan Hijazi's house for coffee, where we meet Hassan's son, Mohammed. "My father is sixty six year old now," says Mohammed. "He should be enjoying his retirement, but instead he is going to have to close his farm. But this issue is not just about my father – this is about the destruction of Gaza."
Hassan and Mohammed Hijazi say they are angry and frustrated that Zionist entity is effectively killing the entire farming industry across the Gaza Strip. But they also hold the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the European Union responsible for their silence in the face of the continuing closure.
"Shame on Zionist entity" says Mohammed Hijazi. "But shame on the Palestinian Authority, too. My father represents many local flowers farmers in southern Gaza, but no-one from the Ministry of Agriculture has even contacted us during this crisis. And shame on the European Union, because they have done nothing either. Why are they standing back in silence and allowing this to happen to us. Tell me – what is the security risk in exporting flowers?"
the source is : www.alqassam.ps/english