Gaza City, Gaza Strip — Owners of sewing and textile factories in the Gaza Strip are hoping to see a steady increase in their exports to the West Bank and Israel. They credit a slight improvement to the truce understandings reached between Hamas and Israel in March and called on the governments in Gaza and Ramallah to offer incentives to the textile sector.
The truce provided for economic incentives in the Gaza Strip and an increase in exportation at the border crossings.
Abdel Fattah Abu Moussa, spokesman for the Ministry of National Economy in Gaza, told Al-Monitor that there has been a noticeable improvement in the performance of sewing and textile factories, with sales reaching $3 million during the first half of 2019 for the first time since the Israeli blockade on Gaza in 2007.
Abu Moussa attributed the improvement to Israel’s approval to export limited quantities of Gaza-made clothing to the West Bank and Israel, as well as the policy of the Ministry of National Economy to protect local products and encourage production through tax and fee exemption on raw materials in coordination with the Gaza-based Ministry of Finance, in addition to a discount for electricity.
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