Guardian: Blockade is blessing for Hamas [View All]

[Lars77]

By sealing Gaza off from import and export, the Israeli blockade has laid waste to the territory's legitimate employers.

When Usama Kuhail's construction business collapsed almost overnight following Israel's dramatic intensification of its siege of the Gaza Strip three years ago, he knew that the prospects for the 120 building workers he employed on a casual basis were grim.

Along with Kuhail's firm, 3,000 businesses were to go under in the ensuing months. For each job lost, another seven or eight people who relied on that income faced impoverishment.

So what did Kuhail's men do? About 40% now work in the tunnels under the border with Egypt that are used to smuggle huge amounts of goods into Gaza, a dangerous job only for the desperate. The rest, he said, probably either joined the Hamas security services or are paid piecemeal by militant factions to launch rockets into Israel.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/06/gaza-blockade-black-economy-hamas