As the citizens in the besieged Gaza Strip on Sunday marked the end of the holy month of Ramadan with the Eid al-Fitr festival the health authorities raised the alarm over the dire health situation after 10 coronavirus cases were reported among passengers who arrived recently through the Rafah border crossing.
The health authorities in Gaza also have concerns as shoppers and merchants seemed to have not taken the pandemic seriously during the last days of the holy month especially as the markets were packed with people and lacked safety measures.
Gaza merchants affirmed that the majority of shoppers visited the markets especially clothing stores without buying things during the last week of Ramadan saying the crowding at markets was mostly for a recreational purpose.
One of the storekeepers told the PIC reporter that there was no real purchasing activity at the markets as many people came only to see things and walk for pleasure.
A female citizen also said that she came to the market in Omar al-Mukhtar street in Gaza City to walk around with her kids and enjoy seeing things adding that her family decided to buy clothes after the Eid holiday.
According to economists in Gaza the low purchasing power of citizens in Gaza has doubled due to the coronavirus pandemic that hit the local economy and caused traders and storekeepers who always gear up for holiday and wedding seasons to incur considerable losses.
Maher al-Tabaa senior official at the Gaza Chamber of Commerce and Industry stated that the unemployment rate in Gaza climbed to 50 percent due to “the disastrous economic and humanitarian conditions which the Palestinians suffer from under the Israeli blockade.”
In remarks to the PIC reporter he pointed out that the food insecurity in Gaza increased to more than 70 percent and the poverty rate reached 53 percent adding that the coronavirus crisis escalated the population’s suffering and paralyzed many vital sectors including the markets.
