By Nour Abu Aisha
GAZA CITY, Palestine
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip will celebrate the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday on Friday amid rising poverty rates and deteriorating economic conditions.
Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has groaned under a crippling Israeli/Egyptian blockade that has gutted its economy and continues to deprive its roughly 2 million inhabitants of many basic commodities, including food, fuel, and medicine.
This has also affected their ability to meet the traditional requirements of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
Although local traders are selling their goods at reasonable prices, or even considerable discounts, most Gazans just lack the money, according to a number of traders who spoke to Anadolu Agency.
“Most of the people come to the market but leave empty-handed as they can’t afford anything,” one trader said.
A number of Gazans who spoke to Anadolu Agency said they could no longer celebrate the Eid like they used to due to lack of cash.
In Gaza City’s largest public market, 20-year-old Soha Ahmed pulled her young daughter from a toy shop despite the girl’s entreaties.
“But I love that doll,” her daughter cried out.
Soha later told Anadolu Agency: “I came to the market today to buy a new dress for my daughter -- for 50 shekels [about $15] -- but I have nothing extra for toys.”
“My husband is a civil servant employed by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah,” she explained.
“He got part of his salary a week ago but had to pay off the debts he had accumulated over the past month,” she lamented.
Little joy at toy shop
Toy vendor Ibrahim Haboush, 28, complained about the lack of customers during the usually busy holiday season.
He explains that he has been selling large quantities of toys over the past years, but this year only 20 percent of products in his stores have been sold so far.
Habboush says that “customers have very little cash and want to buy toys at a very cheap price, which can cut deeply into my earnings.”
“This is due to the high poverty rate prevailing in the largest segment of the population of the Gaza Strip,” he added.
He said the Palestinian Authority's deductions from the salaries of its employees in the Gaza Strip have had a significant impact on the overall situation of the markets and caused a collapse in living standards.
Last year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas took a number of punitive measures as a way of piling pressure on Hamas to relinquish its control of the Gaza Strip.
The measures included cutting the salaries of Gaza-based employees by 30 percent, reducing electricity supplies to the territory, and the forced retirement of around 6,000 employees.
"People flock to markets, but they don’t buy or even have enough money to buy," said Fayek al-Masri, a public transportation driver.
Al-Masri’s main source of income was also affected by the deteriorating economic conditions, as, he says, “many people prefer to walk instead of using public transportation.”
In the middle of a public market, sweets vendor Ahmed Qassem stands in front of his cart, decorated with various candies and holiday souvenirs, to get the attention of pedestrians, but to no avail.
"We have lots of goods, including new arrivals, and we have surplus from last year's products at lower prices, but there’s no purchasing power," Kassem said.
Eid cookies
Unusually, thousands of Palestinian families will not be able to prepare Eid cookies this year as a result of the bad economy.
"My husband is a seller from a small vehicle, and because of poor purchasing power and low income, we won’t be able to buy supplies for this year's Eid cookies," said Palestinian woman Rania.
She explained that Gaza’s worsening economic situation affected all Palestinian families.
Rania went on to lament that they will not buy high-quality sweets like most years, but will have to make do with what is available or sold at the lowest prices.
Maher al-Tabba, spokesman at the Gaza Chamber of Commerce said: "Gaza greets Eid al-Fitr amid the most difficult economic and living conditions."
Unemployment in the Gaza Strip rose to 49.1 percent in the first quarter of 2018, he said, adding: "That means 255,000 unemployed people."
Among university graduates, unemployment stands at 64 percent, he added.
About one million Palestinians depend on aid they get from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and international and Arab relief groups operating in the Gaza Strip.
The poverty rate in the Gaza Strip, said al-Tabba, reached 53 percent, with an absolute poverty rate of 33 percent.
He added that about 72 percent of Palestinian households on the Gaza Strip suffer from food insecurity.
