Cars and lorries are routinely stopped and searched. Produce going to market perishes. Gaza's vegetables and citrus, the main cash crops, are dumped on the local market or rot in the fields because they cannot be sold in Israel or abroad. Fishermen cannot put to sea in their small boats. Business is at a standstill.
Shopkeepers have no custom.
Palestinians hold on to whatever cash they have. They do not pay interest on loans, utilities, school fees or medical bills. People who are ill cannot afford medicines. The Palestine Authority has suspended development and infrastructure projects because there are no raw materials and cement. Both the Authority and the UN Relief and Works Agency which looks after the 800,000 refugees living here have initiated sanitation and other projects to provide the jobless with an income.