Palestinian dairy products are prohibited from entering Gaza.

Hebron - Ofoq News - At a time when demands are escalating to open the crossings and bring humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, a vital economic issue that affects food security and the resilience of the national industry has been absent from the discussion, as the occupation government still prevents Palestinian dairy products from reaching their natural market in the Strip.

Palestinian manufacturers reveal that the ongoing ban since the beginning of this year has inflicted significant losses on dairy companies, causing them to lose a quarter of their sales, at a time when they are suffering from high production costs due to gates and barriers at the entrances to cities.

Al-Jebrini: Gaza consumes 25% of our production and our warehouses were destroyed

Hossam Al-Jebrini, the administrative and financial director of Al-Jebrini Dairy Products Company, told Ofoq News that his company has been banned since the beginning of this year from sending its products to the Gaza Strip, by a decision of the occupation authorities.

Al-Jebrini explained that the Gaza market was absorbing about 25% of the company’s total production, which is a large number that cannot be easily compensated in the local market in the West Bank.

He added: "The matter was not limited to the ban. The company's warehouses and our storage refrigerators in the Gaza Strip were destroyed during the war, and we completely lost the marketing and distribution chains that we had built over the years."

Al-Jebrini continued: “We hope that we will soon be able to send our products back to Gaza, as the return of the Palestinian product there is not just a commercial operation, but rather a support for the steadfastness of our people and a stabilization of the national industry.”

Al-Junaidi: 20% of our production goes to Gaza, and they are banned from East Jerusalem as well

Mashhour Abu Khalaf, General Manager of Al-Junaidi Dairy Products Company, agrees with him, as he confirmed that the Gaza Strip market was consuming about 20% of the company’s products.

Abu Khalaf told Ofoq News that the ban affected another market that is no less important, explaining: “The occupation government has been preventing the entry of our company’s products into East Jerusalem for some time, which means losing two central markets at the same time.”

Israeli monopoly on the Gaza market

Manufacturers and observers confirmed that the occupation government not only prevented Palestinian products from reaching Gaza, but also prevented Palestinian merchants and distributors in the West Bank and Gaza from communicating with each other, and cut off direct supply chains.

They explained that anyone who wants to send goods to Gaza today is forced to pass through Israeli intermediary companies only, which are the companies that currently monopolize the Gaza market and supply it exclusively with Israeli products, in a policy of systematic exclusion of the Palestinian national product from its natural market.

Complex losses: ban from Gaza and Jerusalem... and barriers that raise the cost

Manufacturers confirm that preventing Palestinian dairy products from entering Gaza has caused companies significant direct losses, represented by the accumulation of production and a decline in sales.

In addition, the iron gates and military checkpoints erected at the entrances to Palestinian cities in the West Bank increased transportation and distribution costs, and raised the cost of production.