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Blockade means clothes ordered for Gaza arrive two years late and ruined by damp
The commercial shipments of clothes and shoes from Israel to merchants in Gaza ordered more than two years ago began to arrive in the Palestinian territory this week–but local traders warned it is not an indication of the resumption of greater economic ties between the two sides.
Nearly three years into Israel's economic blockade of the Gaza Strip, 20 shipping containers of clothes and shoes–stuck in storage in Israel for the past two years under a ban on imports to Gaza–arrived in the enclave on Sunday and Tuesday, but were almost completely ruined by damp, merchants said.
More boxes of shoes and clothing that have also been in storage for several years will cross into Gaza over the next three months, according to Raed Fattouh, a Palestinian liaison official with the Hamas-run economics ministry. A number of shipments of clothes and shoes have also entered Gaza by way of UN aid packages, the Israeli army said.