Gaza businesses struggle to rebuild after two years of war

The destruction of the businesses during the two-year war has not only impacted their owners, but the many workers and their families who relied on them for income.

At the site of one of AlArees Factories, owner Taha al-Maqadma, 45, walked through the area where ice cream, chocolate-coated marshmallow treats and biscuits were once being produced.

Al-Maqadma said that his factory used to employ more than 200 workers before the war, with its monthly revenues reaching as high as US$30,000 to US$50,000, especially during the summer season.

"The news we received was like a thunderbolt, that the factory had been hit. It affected my mental state very negatively... We have nothing left," he said.

Twenty people were killed in the Israeli bombing of the factory, al-Maqadma said, including two of his brothers.

Israel says its offensive is aimed against Hamas and that it tries to avoid killing civilians, but that the group hides among the civilian population, an assertion that Hamas denies.

A United Nations report said on Tuesday (November 25) that Gaza war and economic restrictions in the Israeli-occupied West Bank have triggered the worst collapse in the Palestinian economy on record, wiping out decades of growth.

The Palestinian economy across the West Bank and Gaza contracted by 30% in 2024 compared with 2022 - the benchmark being used to measure the impact of the two-year Israel-Hamas war, the report by the U.N. Trade and Development agency (UNCTAD) said.

That is the steepest fall since data collection began in 1972, exceeding previous economic downturns during the many conflicts since then including the Second Intifada after the failure of peace talks in 2000, it said.

The scale of the damage in Gaza after the two-year war between Israel and Hamas means the enclave will be reliant on extensive international support for years to come, the report said.

At Haifa Bakery, another business which has been left in ruins, its manager and one of its owners Tarek Awida was overseeing repair work of equipment retrieved from under the rubble of the bakery's building.

Awida said that his bakery used to employ around 45 workers, serving around 200,000 people and producing more than 4,000 loaves a day in partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP).

The bakery's revenues were at US$8,000 a month before the war, Awida said, adding that he and other owners are now paying for repair work from their own resources, renovating equipment to re-establish themselves in a new location nearby.

"We hope to resume operations in the coming days, after we make this bakery ready," Awida said.