Gaza Pepsi factory shuts down, owners blame Israeli restrictions

Despite that a truce between Israel and Gaza's Hamas is underway, the Zionist regime on Monday allowed a limited resumption of exports from the enclave.

But it has kept in place tightened measures on raw material imports, including carbon dioxide gas and syrup that the bottling company's factory needs to produce Pepsi, 7UP and Mirinda soda, said Pepsi Gaza's Hamam al-Yazeji.

"Yesterday, we completely ran out of raw materials, and unfortunately we had to shut down the factory, sending home 250 workers," Yazeji said. Before the May fighting, he said, Pepsi Gaza was generally allowed to import needed materials.

Israel and neighbouring Egypt keep tight control over Gaza's borders, and claim the restrictions are necessary to -what they say- stop weapons reaching Hamas and prevent them from being produced locally.

Shutdowns could also occur in other Gaza factories if Israeli restrictions are kept up, analysts say. Manufacturing makes up around 10 percent of Gaza's service sector-dominated economy, according to U.N. data.