Both Spanish clothing group Inditex and its Swedish competitor H&M have decided to temporarily close their Israeli stores. Sources contacted by AFP in the case of Inditex and an H&M spokesman confirmed this in an email to Bloomberg.
While H&M operates 24 stores in the country, Inditex has 84 branches of all the group’s brands. “Our stores will be temporarily closed and return periods will be extended by 30 days from reopening,” says the Israeli websites of the main brand Zara, as well as Pull&Bear, Bershka, Stradivarius, Massimo Dutti and Zara Home.
The closure of the shops is a result of the war between Israel and Hamas – on October 7th, the latter launched a major attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip. The decision to temporarily close the stores was made on the fourth day after the attack.