The Zionist Producers Union announced that its companies had suffered 1.2 billion dollars ($ 368 million) in losses during the 11-day war in Gaza.
Intense Israeli bombardment caused massive damage in the Gaza Strip, where the Hamas media office estimates that industrial facilities were damaged by $ 40 million and the energy sector was damaged by $ 22 million.
Israeli companies lost 1.2 billion shekels ($ 368 million) during 11 days of fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the country’s main industrial group said on Monday.
The Israel Manufacturers Association, which represents some 1,500 companies and 400,000 workers, said the loss of $ 368 million was mainly due to employees choosing to stay home due to the near-uninterrupted firing of Palestinian rockets from Gaza.
About a third of the workers were absent from work in southern Israel and about 10 percent were staying at home in areas closer to the commercial center of central Israel, the association said.
“The non-arrival of workers caused a significant decrease in the production of industrial companies, a drop in sales and a direct damage to income,” he said.
As rockets fell on Israel, heavy Israeli shelling across the border caused massive damage in the Gaza Strip, and Hamas’s media office estimated $ 40 million in damage to factories and the strip’s industrial zone and other industrial facilities. , in addition to $ 22 million in damage to the energy sector.
Medical officials in Gaza said 248 people died during the fighting, while in Israel doctors estimated the death toll at 13. A ceasefire was held on Monday on a fourth day.
The Israeli government has yet to publish its May 10-21 conflict damage estimate.
Fifty Israeli factories suffered millions of shekels of direct damage from rocket shrapnel, the manufacturers association said. It did not include indirect damages, such as canceled orders, in its estimate.
During the last major hostilities between Israel and Hamas, a 2014 war that lasted seven weeks, Israel’s central bank estimated that the country’s economy took a hit of 3.5 billion shekel ($ 1 million), plus nearly the same amount. in damages to the tourism sector.
Ron Tomer, president of the association, called on the government to establish a permanent compensation scheme that helps companies more efficiently in future rounds of struggle. Israel’s parliamentary finance committee is scheduled to debate the issue on Tuesday.
“This is not a time of bureaucracy and procrastination, but of rehabilitation and total support for these companies, which throughout the operation demonstrated that they know how to operate and produce under rocket fire,” said Tomer.
Israel’s economy is beginning to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, with official data on Monday showing that the unemployment rate was 7.9 percent in April, while other data points to an increase in job openings. Growth of 4 to 7 percent is expected in 2021 after a 2.6 percent contraction in 2020.