It is a Thursday night in Khan Younis and business is good at the al-Sawafiri restaurant. Not far away, entire blocks have been reduced to rubble, but here, in this small corner of the city in the southern Gaza Strip, the damage is less extensive. Raed al-Sawafiri, the owner and manager, stands in front of chicken rotating on a grill and smiles. Every one of his plastic tables is occupied.
Al-Sawafiri had no experience of the restaurant trade until very recently. Displaced 10 times during the 16-month conflict in Gaza, the 23-year-old opened his first establishment in Rafah, the southernmost city in the territory, early this year, after sourcing old equipment and sending his father to the border with Egypt to buy meat.
