Mahmoud al-Basili, unemployed construction worker

I am married and have four minor children. Until June 2007, I worked in construction and earned 50 shekels a day.

As of June 2006, Israel started closing Karni Crossing for long periods of time. This has caused a shortage of construction material, meaning less construction work. I started working a few days a week, on and off. The situation has deteriorated even more since June 2007, when Israel closed Karni completely and prevented all goods from entering the Gaza Strip, especially construction materials. This paralyzed the construction sector and put me out of work.

I now have no way to support myself and my family. From time to time, people ask me to do some construction work for them, but I can't do it without materials. Also, the few materials I can get are very expensive. A sack of cement (50 kilogram s) now costs 170 shekels while in the past, a ton cost only 250 shekels. A few merchants have construction materials left and they take advantage of the situation and charge extravagant prices.

My suffering is increasing daily. It is now Ramadan and ‘Eid el-Fitr [the three-day holiday at the end of Ramadan] is close by, and I don't have money to buy holiday clothes for my children. They see other kids going to buy new clothes at the market, knowing that they aren't going to get anything. I buy from the grocer on credit, and he is threatening to cut off my credit if I don't pay what I owe him.

I signed up at the Unemployment Office hoping to find some work, but there was nothing. My family and I are now living off the food baskets provided by welfare agencies. But it is not enough to meet our basic needs.

Mahmoud Khamis al-‘Abd al-Basili, 43, married with four children, is a construction worker and a resident of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. His testimony was given to Khaled al-‘Azeizeh,in the Nuseirat refugee camp on 8 October 2007.