GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — A refugee from Syria recently opened a bakery here, drawing long lines of customers eager to taste meat and cheese pastries with the special flavors of Damascus — a rare bright spot in the long shadow that the Syrian civil war is casting over the Gaza Strip.

The conflict in Syria, some 300 kilometers (190 miles) away, is increasingly hurting Hamas-ruled Gaza financially, according to several officials in the Islamic militant group and in Islamic charities.