GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The real estate and residential construction sectors in the Gaza Strip are experiencing an economic recovery. After sustaining huge losses in the industrial sector following the 2014 Israeli war on Gaza, investors and others with capital are now investing sums significant enough to make these sectors the most profitable in Gaza, which is still reeling under a crippling economy stemming from the 10-year-long and ongoing Israeli blockade.

Osama Kahil, the Gaza-based head of the Palestinian Contractors Union, told Al-Monitor that the demographic increase in Gaza coupled with a halt in domestic factory production due to the blockade and successive Israeli wars on Gaza have led investors to pour their money into the construction of residential towers.

According to statistics released by the Interior Ministry in Gaza Jan. 18, the population at the end of 2016 stood at 2,015,064 people. A July 2016 press release from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics had put the population density at 5,154 persons per square kilometer. Gaza covers an area of 365 square kilometers (141 square miles).

The owners of land in residential neighborhoods have been turning to investors and entrepreneurs to conclude profit-sharing contracts for constructing and selling residential units on their land. Murad al-Sharqawi owns a 1 dunum plot (1 dunum equals approximately 11,000 square feet) in Gaza City's Nasser neighborhood. He contacted a local investor to build a seven-story residential building on the land, which he inherited from his father, with the aim of reaping profits.