The rusty lumps of thousands of old cars imported into Gaza from Israel decades ago were piled up in the decaying metal Mad Max wasteland that separates the northern part of the Palestinian enclave .
That gloomy scene is about to change.
Palestinian worker sorts waste metals in preparation for export, at a waste plant east of Gaza
(Photo: Reuters)
While the route up the coast to Israeli cities Jaffa, Haifa has been blocked for Palestinian vehicles and drivers by Israeli walls and checkpoints for years, a shift in Israeli policy means that there are now thousands of old cars and other pieces of scrap metal. finally leaving Gaza.
Palestinian buyers estimate that about 200,000 tons of scrap metal – from used truck parts to empty soda cans – has accumulated on Gaza’s border since Israel began blocking in 2007 after a Hamas terrorist group seized on power there.
Old cars and old wrecks can be seen at a landfill to be crushed in preparation for export, east of Gaza
(Photo: Reuters)
But Israeli authorities in October cleared the metal for crushed plant exports inside Israel, creating a welcome source of income in poor Gaza.
Gazans sell the scrap metal for about 750 pence ($ 228.16) per ton. Israel allows 1,000 tons to be exported each week, a pace that would clear the reserve in four years.
Buyers say the exports have found employment for about 6,000 Palestinian workers in Gaza, where unemployment is 49%.
“There’s almost no work in the city,” said Emad Aqail, 39, who supplies metal to crushers ready for export. “Working in metals is horrible, but it gives me the income I want.”
Palestinian worker sorts waste metals in preparation for export, at a waste plant east of Gaza
(Photo: Reuters)
Many Gazans preferred to grind and recycle the metal for use within the enclosure, which is home to more than two million Palestinians.
But Israel and Egypt are restricting the entry of machinery into the Gaza Strip, citing the security threat posed by their Islamic regime, Hamas. Prohibited equipment includes anything that militant groups could use to make weapons – including new metal crushers.
Garbage yard east of Gaza
(Photo: Reuters)
Israel said the new scheme has so far earned about $ 3 million for Gazans.
Lt. Col. Abdallah Halabi, of the Israeli Coordinating and Liaison Administration for Gaza, said the goal is to “develop the Gaza Strip economy, as quality of life and economic development in the Gaza Strip cannot be separated from the region’s security stability. . . “
Bahaa Al-Agha, from the Gaza Environmental Quality Authority welcomed the removal of the risk of pollution to Gaza ‘s soil and water.
But the economic benefit would have been greater, he said, “if Israel had allowed factories to set up to recycle these products in the Gaza Strip.”