Gaza to open local markets after a 5-month closure

Palestinians head to the markets to ready themselves for Ramadan in Gaza on 7 May 2019 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]

Gaza’s Interior Ministry yesterday said it would reopen the enclave’s local markets this week after over five months of closures.

“Local markets will reopen on 7 February all week, except Fridays and Saturdays, during which a Strip-wide curfew is imposed,” the head of the ministry’s COVID-19 Managment Cell, Fayeq Al-Mabhouh, told local media.

He added that the ministry had met with “owners of popular markets to discuss preventive measures that would be taken after the reopening.”

Since the discovery of the first two infection cases in Gaza in late August, the government has taken several measures to prevent the spread of the disease, including the closure of markets and lockdowns.

READ: Gaza suffers $1.5bn losses from siege, covid this year

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