Two years ago, Israeli bulldozers destroyed $5m worth of equipment and buildings at the Tiles Eiriz Company in the northern Gaza Strip. The Israeli army said Palestinian snipers were using the large factory building as cover, so it moved its tanks in and parked there.

In spite of visits by officials from the US embassy and non-governmental organisations, the Abu Ghalion family received no compensation and spent seven months clearing rubble. Their business, importing marble chips from Italy and cement from Turkey to make floor tiles, has only just survived, and they estimate turnover has been reduced by 90 per cent. "We got a bank loan and, eight months after everything was destroyed, we had started up again," says Mahmoud Abu Ghalion. "No one came to help us so we helped ourselves."