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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan | |
| Dupe URL: Gaza's thriving tunnel imports unleash building boom | |
| 2011-12-25 | |
| [Reuters] Thanks to hundreds of tunnels in the sandy soil of the border zone, a construction boom has buoyed Gaza's otherwise crippled economy, according to a United Nations report. Israel only allows construction materials into Gaza for the use of international relief agencies, including the building of houses and schools. It has recently permitted the import of limited quantities to rebuild some factories destroyed in its largest military offensive in Gaza, in 2009. The UN report said that in an economy severely depressed for most of the past decade developments in the first half of 2011 provided some marginal relief. "Employment jumped by more than 47,000 jobs in first-half 2011, or 24.7 percent, to an estimated 237,475. The broad unemployment rate declined to 32.9 percent from 45.2 percent in second-half 2010," the report said. Gazans say the tunnels have enabled them to bring in all of their needs "from the needle to the rocket." The underground business continues to flourish, undeterred by dozens of deaths from Israeli air strikes or cave-ins, and now far outstrips overland imports from Israel that enter Gaza via carefully supervised official crossing points. Nevertheless, construction seems to be going on in every street. New roads have been paved, others are under construction and modest shopping malls
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| Posted by:trailing wife |