DEIR EL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Mohammed al-Telbani lost his life’s work when Israeli shells repeatedly slammed into his four-story snack and cookie factory during the Gaza war, finally sparking a fire that engulfed vats of margarine and sacks of cocoa powder.
As he contemplated starting over, sitting near the smoldering ruins of one of Gaza’s largest factories, he looked to Cairo for answers. There, negotiators from Israel and Hamas launched another attempt Monday to negotiate an end to the 34-day-old war — and, perhaps even more crucial for Gaza’s 1.8 million people, reach a new border deal for the coastal territory.
Gazans haven’t been able to trade or travel freely since Israel and Egypt imposed stringent border restrictions in response to the violent Hamas takeover of the territory in 2007. The closure also deepened Gaza’s separation from the West Bank and east Jerusalem, areas on the opposite side of Israel that, along with Gaza, are envisioned as part of a future Palestinian state.
The blockade was meant to isolate the Islamic militant Hamas and perhaps loosen its grip on power. Seven years later, Hamas remains rooted in Gaza, albeit weakened by a financial crisis brought on by the closure as well as thousands of Israel airstrikes over the past month.
Gaza’s civilians have borne the brunt of the blockade.
Unemployment — already at 30 percent in 2007 — has risen to 45 percent, according to official figures. Tens of thousands of jobs have been wiped out. The main U.N. aid agency in Gaza says it provides food aid to about 800,000 Gazans, ten times the number it helped in 2000, when Israeli travel bans linked to unrest intensified.
A ban on virtually all exports from Gaza, along with the destruction of scores of factories in three rounds of fighting, has reduced the number of manufacturing businesses from 2,400 to 400 over eight years, according to a local business association.
Al Awda, al-Telbani’s snack business, was big enough to survive by shifting to local sales and he says he will likely rebuild because he needs to make a living. If the borders were open, though, he could do it better and faster.
“I could employ 2,000 workers instead of 450 if I could export,” said the 62-year-old, a self-made man who grew up poor in a refugee camp. “Instead of producing 40 tons (a day), I could produce 120 tons.”
Yet hopes are faint that the indirect Cairo talks, run by Egyptian mediators, will deliver a brighter future.
Israel says it won’t lift the closure unless Hamas disarms. It argues that Hamas has exploited eased restrictions in the past to boost its military infrastructure, diverting cement and steel imported for schools and homes for the construction of tunnels used as staging areas for attacks on Israel.
Hamas views such a demand as an existential threat. It fears that if it disbands its 20,000-strong fighting force and hands over remaining rockets — essentially dropping its core principle of armed struggle against Israel — it will become indistinguishable from rival Fatah, the movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that has tried and failed for two decades to win statehood through negotiations with Israel.
The Cairo talks might not produce more than an easing of the current restrictions.
Partial solutions could include Israel allowing more building materials into Gaza, under international supervision, for post-war reconstruction.
In any scenario, Abbas is expected to regain a foothold in the territory he lost in 2007, with some of his forces to be deployed at Gaza’s crossings to allay security concerns by Israel and Egypt.