(28 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY"
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ramallah, West Bank – 27 March 2025
1. Wide of shoppers walking on the sidewalk
2. Wide of market
3. Nut stall
4. Wide of clothing market
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahmed Janazra, Bethlehem resident:
"Every Eid I see things regressing further. The economic situation in the country is very bad, unfortunately. The political circumstances are also difficult, especially with the roadblocks. I’m coming from Bethlehem, and unfortunately, from the morning until now I’ve been stuck. I came to the Ministry of Interior,for important things. Honestly, if not for this, I wouldn’t come because, in reality, there are no financial means to travel back and forth, and in addition, all the roads are blocked."
6. Cutaway of shoppers
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahmed Janazra, Bethlehem resident:
“Unfortunately, the war has returned to our people in Gaza and the developments on the ground, as you can see, unfortunately there are no workers going to work in Israel and there are no employees receiving their salaries. This is the situation in the country, praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds. The employee was waiting for his salary at the end of the month so that he could buy Eid clothes for his children and to buy the necessary supplies for Eid, but unfortunately, we were surprised that the government announced yesterday that there would be no salaries before Eid. This is a big problem for the employee who spent his salary for last month and does not have money to buy now.”
8. Wide of vegetable market
9. Mid of vegetable market and shoppers
10. Close up of sweets
11. Set up shot of Hatem Abdel Wahab, owner of a sweet shop in Ramallah:
12. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hatem Abdel Wahab, owner of a sweets shop in Ramallah:
“ The situation is very, very miserable these days, and we must not forget our brothers in Gaza who are living under hunger, siege, and continuous bombardment. We must not forget them, and as you can see, the streets are empty of shoppers.”
13. Various of shoppers in Ramallah downtown
STORYLINE:
As the Eid al-Fitr Muslim holiday approaches, a sobre mood overshadows the West Bank city of Ramallah in what would normally be a joyous time of the year.
The Eid al-Fitr holiday marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan for Muslims around the world.
The Palestinian Authority is facing financial problems that have led to its inability to pay its employees salaries before Eid which has had an impact at the markets.
In a statement issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Finance on Wednesday, the ministry said that “ The Israeli government’s deliberate failure to transfer clearance funds for February 2025 to date, the Ministry of Finance announces that February 2025 salaries will not be paid before Eid al-Fitr.”
The Israeli government has been withholding seven billion shekels in Palestinian tax revenues from 2019 until February 2025, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Finance.
The economic situation has been exacerbated by the lack of Palestinians travelling to Israel to work due to restrictions in place since the war in Gaza.
The war is also having an impact on morale.
"The situation is very, very miserable these days, and we must not forget our brothers in Gaza who are living under hunger, siege, and continuous bombardment," said Hatem Abdel Wahab, owner of a sweet shop in Ramallah
Israel has cut off all food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to war-torn Gaza’s roughly 2 million people since the beginning of the month — a strategy that rights groups say is a war crime.
AP Video by Imad Isseid
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