Israel\\\'s offensive badly hurts Gaza economy

GAZA, July 20 (Xinhua) : For 14 days, stores, factories and businesses totally suspended, while Gaza's economy was badly hurt as Israel's ever escalating large-scale offensive on the coastal enclave continues with aerial bombardment and ground incursion that has led to the death of at least 342 Palestinians since its start earlier this month.

Economists and observers believed that the violent and intensive attacks will eventually kill the suffocating local economy that has been in fact suffering from years of rigid Israeli blockade since 2007.

Israel further tightened the blockade measures while its warplanes and soldiers are carrying out the "Operation Protective Edge" through introducing more restrictions on the movement of goods and people.

The two previous Israeli offensives carried out against the enclave in late 2008 and in 2012, had destroyed around 1,700 economic and industrial establishments in the Gaza Strip, while the current offensive also targeted dozens of factories, according to local businessmen.

Ali Hayek, deputy chairman of Gaza businessmen association, told Xinhua that the two previous wars had nearly eliminated most of region's economic, industrial and commercial complex, adding that the ongoing one unfortunately destroyed the rest.

"It is hard to count now how many factories and other commercial and economical facilities were destroyed in the Gaza Strip because the war is still going on," said Hayek.

For years, the Gaza Strip was suffering from a severely sluggish economy with high levels of poverty and unemployment rates. Yet Israel still bans the imports of various kinds of raw materials used for construction, industry and agriculture.