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Investors remain wary of Gaza

A recent conference of investors landed six projects for the West Bank, but none for Gaza because of the risk involved.
Office chairs sit abandoned in front of shuttered store fronts along a normally bustling commercial street in central Gaza City, July 19, 2014. Israel's month-long war against Hamas, with Israel carrying out air strikes, artillery bombardments and ground operations in response to constant militant rocket fire and attacks via tunnels, left more than 2,000 Palestinians dead, most of them civilians, as well as 64 Israeli soldiers and three civilians. It was the deadliest war in Gaza since Israel unilaterally w

RAMALLAH, West Bank — As a businessperson, would you invest your money in the Gaza Strip under the current political and economic conditions? Farouk Shami did not hesitate to answer in the affirmative, stating, “I do not believe there are obstacles. Rather, there are challenges that we must all work to overcome, and Gaza is currently in dire need of our money.”

Shami, a Palestinian American businessman, led a three-day investors' conference that convened May 4 in Ramallah with the aim of attracting Palestinian business investments from abroad. Those assembled pledged $104 million for six projects in the West Bank, but no funds or projects were forthcoming for Gaza, which remains in need of reconstruction and economic recovery after the 2014 war with Israel. 

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