RESTRICTION SUMMARY: Gaza - 10 July 2022. Palestinian tannery workers tan leather of cows after slaughter on the second day of Eid al-Adha or the feast of sacrifice, in Gaza city.

0.1 SOUNDBITE (in Arabic): Mohamed Al-Hayek
0.2 SOUNDBITE (in Arabic): Hazem Shawa


STORYLINE:

The craft of leather tanning grows among the population of the Gaza Strip, which amounts to about two million people, during the blessed Eid al-Adha, after the Muslim Palestinians slaughtered the sacrifices to celebrate the holiday.

Leather tanning is the first step in the leather making process, after the hides come from the beamhouse and are cleaned from dirt, blood, salt and hair. To use a hide or skin for a leather product it needs to be processed. This process is called the tanning process. Tanning changes the chemistry inside the leather fibers to make it more difficult for the enzymes from bacteria and fungi to break them down – this makes the leather durable.

Leather tanning turns a hide into leather. Depending on the type of hide and intent of usage, these are the steps of leather tanning: Soaking, Liming, De-liming, Bating, Pickling and Tanning.

Footage /APAwire