Mediterranean waves crash below patrons snacking on freshly-caught fish at the "Maldive Gaza" café, offering a glimpse of paradise to Palestinians confined to the blockaded strip.
The new three-storey restaurant, protruding 15 meters (50 feet) over the rocky shoreline, also features the tropical juice drinks typical of the distant Indian ocean island after which it is named.
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Many of Gaza's 2 million Palestinians have never left the 360 square kilometer (140 sq mile) enclave, which Israel and Egypt have largely blockaded for years citing security concerns over Hamas, which rules the Strip.
Hamas, designated as a terrorist group by the Israel, US, Canada, the European Union and Egypt, ousted PA President Mahmoud Abbas' western-backed Fatah government from Gaza in a military coup in 2007. Israel and Egypt assert that the maritime blockade on the territory is necessary to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons into Gaza.
"The people of Gaza can't go to the Maldives, so we said to ourselves: Why don't we bring the Maldives to them?" said Emad Al-Bayya, co-owner of the café, which seats 1,200 and which he hopes to expand.
It is one of several new seaside cafés bearing the names of dream travel destinations, Marbella, Dubai and Sharm el-Sheikh among them.
They offer a brief window onto a more exotic life to people "who have been subject to wars, pressures and blockades", said Rola Al-Agha, one of hundreds of patrons packed into "Maldive Gaza" on a pleasantly breezy evening last week.
Gaza has had no COVID-19 cases among the general public, and there are few curbs on social interactions.
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