Reduced to poverty by a blockade on the Gaza Strip, Palestinian merchants in the Hamas-ruled enclave complain Israel's method for allowing in their merchandise often adds insult to injury.

Since the Islamists took over Gaza in a June civil war, Israel has shut the main commercial crossing on the Gaza border, Karni, citing security concerns. That left Sufa crossing, where, in the absence of formal Israeli-Palestinian coordination, vendors from the Jewish state simply dump cargo on the frontier.

It makes for a daily spectacle of Gazan merchants scrabbling about in the sand outside Sufa to salvage food, vegetables and other perishable products often bruised by their rough passage.

"They are dealing with us like animals," said Baker Abu Maamar, one of the Palestinians who owns the land where the cargo is dropped off.

"They dump the goods and leave as if they are telling the Palestinians: 'Here is your food, eat it, sell it, do whatever you want with it'."

Israel denies deliberately putting the cargo at risk, saying it is trying to head off economic crisis in Gaza while shunning Hamas, whose charter calls for the Jewish state's destruction.

"We deliver thousands of crates into Gaza every day, and there is a chance that some might break during the process," said Shadi Yassin, spokesman for the Israeli District Coordination Office, which oversees deliveries to Gaza.

At Sufa, Yassin said, the goods are offloaded during the morning and at 3 p.m. all trucks return to Israel. The gates are then closed and Palestinian merchants allowed in to pick up the cargo and take it to market.

TRUCK TO TRUCK

At another crossing, Kerem Shalom, goods are transferred directly from Israeli to Palestinian trucks, Yassin said. But Palestinians note that Kerem Shalom is primarily used to bring in humanitarian aid to Gaza's 1.5 million residents.

Gaza is a restricted area and the Israeli army decides where and how the deliveries, pre-paid for by Palestinian traders, are delivered.

Mohammad Attaweel, a produce dealer who relies on Sufa for his imports, says the unreliable deliveries have hurt business.

"I lose thousands of shekels every time," he said while picking up and brushing off an order of peaches.

The time that elapses between drop-off and pick-up also raises the risk of the merchandise being stolen.

"We must guard these products from the thieves, and poor people who hope they can get something to feed their children," Abu Maamar said.

Merchants said they can't get their products to the markets without first paying 2,000 shekels ($465) in fees to the Hamas-led administration in the Gaza Strip, despite a decree by President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah to exempt individuals and companies from paying taxes in the territory.

"Abu Mazen (Abbas) is not here. Hamas is here and they say pay and load your trucks -- so we pay," Attaweel said. (Additional reporting by Avida Landau)