By Xinhua
Gaza : Shops and stores in downtown Gaza City closed their doors on Saturday as part of a general strike to protest against the Israeli siege on the impoverished enclave.
The shop owners brandished white banners reading “closed because of the siege” in Arabic and English. The strike was called by a popular committee to break Gaza siege.
“We shut down our stores to express our rejection to the Israeli blockade that has been imposed on Gaza for more than six months without any move by the international community,” an owner of a shoe shop said.
Israel sealed off Gaza Strip last June when Islamic Hamas movement ousted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement and took over the coastal Strip by force.
Lawmaker Jamal al-Khoudari, director of the newly-formed independent anti-siege committee, said Gaza dealers and merchants have lost about 150 millions U.S. dollars since their imported goods are stuck at Israeli sea ports, unable to make their way into Gaza.
In addition, the commercial sector is suffering a daily loss of1 million dollars, according to al-Khoudari.
Placing a monument for the victims of the siege in a public square in the west of Gaza, al-Khoudari said “the siege killed 99 people so far” with more in danger of falling victim to it.
“Thousands of patients wait to have a number in the list of dead because they can’t go outside for further treatment and can’t have the needed medicine here,” he added.