Feature: Israeli blockade leaves thousands of Gaza workers unemployed

Amjad Ashour, a Palestinian worker from Gaza, has nothing to do these days after he was recently discharged from his job in a local furniture company.

This has close connection to the nine-year-old blockade Israel imposed on the Gaza Strip.

Without a job, Ashour, 34, is unable to feed his family of a wife and five children now. Together with Ashour, other 34 workers also lost their jobs in the furniture factory.

Suffering from a weak economy due to the Israeli blockade, Gazans cannot find jobs since unemployment rate has reached its peak.

"The company's administration told me and my colleagues we are discharged until a further notice because the carpentry factory stopped producing furniture after Israel kept banning the export of its products and the import of raw materials," said Ashour.

He went on saying that the company's decision was a big shock for him and his colleagues. "Now I'm unemployed and we really don't know when we will get back to our job if this is going to happen one day. I'm not optimistic," he said.

According to Zeyad Mushtaha, the company's owner, many industrial companies in Gaza were told last November that Israel decided to ban the shipment of wood to Gaza for security considerations. "The decision included furniture companies," he said.

Mushtaha told Xinhua that the Israeli blockade was a disaster for the company. "Finally this caused a complete closure of our factory," he said, adding that "the company may face bankruptcy."

The furniture factory is quiet and empty with all machines turned off completely. For the past three decades, it had never been closed except for holidays.

Israel has imposed tight blockade on Gaza after Islamic Hamas movement violently seized control over the coastal enclave.

Israel decided to ban the shipment of wood in Gaza after the 50-day Gaza war in 2014, saying militants using wood to build underground tunnels. This decision led to the close up of several furniture factories in Gaza.

According to local importers, there are only two furniture factories now in Gaza and they have to obey tight Israeli measures and regulation to survive.

The importers said that Gaza used to import 200 cubic meters of wood every day before 2007 and were all used for constructions.

Mushtaha said that his company used to import woods from China, Greece, India, Italy and other countries.

"We are deeply concerned that these (Israeli banning) measures would compel us to lose our reputations and trust with the exporting companies in those countries which we have built for so many years," he said.

Mushtaha said the number of workers in furniture industry in Gaza has reached 10,000, two thirds of whom are now unemployed.

Furniture industry is not the only sector suffering from the Israeli blockade. Business in many other fields are also severely damaged.

Officials in the Palestinian Liaison office with Israel told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that the Israel never gives specific reasons for the banning decision.

Security reasons are their only excuse. Palestinian Chamber of Commerce in the Gaza Strip published a report in January that unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip reached 41 percent.

Hatem Oweida, deputy economic minister, told Xinhua that Israeli blockade has certainly block, obstruct and destroy Gaza Palestinian economy.

"There are more than 200 kinds of products banned from export and import. Most of these materials are used in various fields of industry," he said, adding that "last year, Israel banned 90 different companies in Gaza from exporting their products." Endit