The Ministry of Economy in Gaza said that it rejects the Israeli occupation's decision to close the Kerem Shalom crossing to exports under false pretexts, considering the step to be an extension of the policy of tightening the siege.

The Ministry warned in a statement that the Israeli occupation authorities’ closure of the only Kerem Shalom commercial crossing in the Gaza Strip to goods transported from Gaza to the West Bank and the outside world will increase the difficulty of the economic situation and create more obstacles to economic activity, especially in the industrial and agricultural sectors, and will limit From the growth of Palestinian economic activity, which suffers as a result of repeated Israeli attacks, and this closure represents additional evidence of the occupation’s use of the economic blockade policy as a tool of collective punishment against citizens, especially since this decision will lead to the cessation of work in dozens of factories and will threaten tens of thousands of workers with the loss of the job opportunities from which they live. It will lead to an increase in the already high rates of poverty and unemployment in the Gaza Strip.

The Ministry called on international institutions to put pressure on the occupation to reverse the decision to close the crossing and reopen it for exports, which represents a single window for the work of dozens of factories and farmers who market their products outside the besieged sector

Source: Maan News Agency