Gaza Herald – Gaza’s Private Sector Coordinating Council announced a firm rejection of a newly imposed Israeli mechanism for commercial imports, warning it would entrench collective punishment and prolong the economic devastation caused by the genocide on Gaza.
The council said the system restricted imports to fewer than ten Palestinian traders, forcing them to work exclusively with four designated Israeli companies, effectively dismantling free competition, cementing monopolies, and placing Gaza’s trade under direct Israeli control.
It warned that the policy was a deliberate attempt to cripple the Palestinian private sector, marginalize most traders, deepen economic dependency, drive up prices, and further burden civilians already crushed by siege and poverty.
Calling on Palestinian institutions and the international community to intervene, the council demanded an immediate return to pre-war trade mechanisms, the full reopening of crossings, and an end to the use of commerce as a weapon of collective punishment against Gaza’s population.
