Gaza scrap collectors finally back in business
Following years of interruption due to Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip, the scrap trade there has resumed, sparking economic hope.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — After seeing their profession almost disappear, scrap collectors once again are roaming the cities and camps of the Gaza Strip in their carts and tuk-tuks (moterized rickshaws). The work isn't easy and has its hazards, but the workers are glad to be back in business.
The collectors buy discarded metal products such as refrigerators, washing machines and electrical cables. The products are stored, sorted, cleaned and then exported to smelting factories in Israel for recycling.
Israel halted the scrap metal business when it imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip in 2007. As a result, thousands of tons of stamped scrap metal that were ready for export piled up.
“Arab and international parties have, for a while, been making efforts to export these huge quantities from the Gaza Strip," Samir Moussa, a senior member at the Consortium of Independent Palestinians, said in June.
