Drop in flower-planted land in Gaza

Israeli obstacles hindering exports of flowers to Europe have led to a major drop in the area of Gaza Strip land planted with flowers bound for Europe.

Sources in the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture said the area of those lands planted with flowers for export to Europe dropped from 900 to 600 dunums.

Though flowers exported to Europe are exempt from customs, Israel collected approximately US $800,000 and has so far refused to pay the money back to the Palestinian flower growers.