Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations

    GAZA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Tens of thousands of factories in the Gaza Strip are still closed due to the lack of raw materials despite a state of ceasefire in the territory, a Palestinian anti-siege activist said Sunday.

    "The suffering of the industrial sector is still going on," said Jamal al-Khodary, an independent lawmaker who heads a popular committee against the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip.

    "The Israeli occupation still bans the entry of the raw materials since more than a year. This caused 3,900 factories and workshops to shut down and about 70,000 workers were fired," he explained.

    Israel sealed off all crossing points into Gaza since the Islamic Hamas movement took over the territory last year. In June, Egypt brokered a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel to end the violence and ease the closure.

    But al-Khodary said Israel "powerfully prevents the flow of the raw materials in spite of the ceasefire."

    The direct losses for the industrial sector exceeds 70 million U.S. dollars every month in addition to tens of millions of dollars as indirect loss, he added.

    Before the ceasefire took effect, Israel used to allow little more than the essential food, aid and basic medicine into the coastal strip. Israel increased the list of goods allowed into Gaza after the truce, but the new items on the list are very limited, making it difficult to be fairly distributed.