Deir el-Balah, central Gaza Strip – As sounds of war faded with the advent of the first truce between Israel and Hamas since October 7, markets across the Gaza Strip were flooded with shoppers, desperate to buy food and clothing. winter.
But the cost of these products has soared, especially for basic foodstuffs, sparking anger and resentment among shoppers who blame traders and traders for the high prices.
Imm Abdullah, who was displaced from her home in the Nassr neighborhood of Gaza City a month ago after Israel ordered northern Gaza residents to move south, resides in one of the schools run by the United Nations in Deir el-Balah with her 12 children. children and grandchildren. She said conditions at the school have become desperate, with no water and almost no supplies.
“When the Israelis threw leaflets at us, I left with my family, wearing only my prayer clothes,” she said. “At school, we barely receive food aid. The other day we received a can of tuna. How am I supposed to support my family with this?
Imm Abdullah had come to the town market to try to buy food and warmer clothes for herself and her grandchildren, as the weather had turned cold. But after visiting different stalls in search of basic food items, his exasperation erupted.
“I don’t believe traders when they say prices are beyond their control,” she said. “They can regulate prices and take into account that we are going through an exceptional period, which they should not take advantage of.”
She made a list of products that are now unaffordable: bottled water, which used to cost 2 shekels ($0.50), now costs 4 or 5 shekels ($0.80 to $1). A carton of eggs costs 45 shekels ($12). A kilo of salt, which used to cost 1 shekel, now costs $12 ($3.20), while sugar costs 25 shekels ($6.70).
“It’s so unfair,” Imm Abdullah said. “I can’t take it anymore and some days I will sit by the sea and cry because I don’t know how to feed or provide for my family. Sometimes I wish I could have stayed home and been bombed instead of going through this.
Billions lost due to blockade
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the poverty rate in the Gaza Strip has reached 53 percent, with a third (33.7 percent) of Gazans living in extreme poverty.
Around 64 percent of households in Gaza lack food and the unemployment rate reaches 47 percent – one of the highest rates in the world.
According to Elhasan Bakr, a Gaza-based economic analyst, price distortion has led to inflation of between 300 and 2,000 percent for various products.
Even before October 7, a 17-year Israeli blockade on the coastal enclave had resulted in a loss of $35 billion to the Palestinian economy.
“The latest Israeli aggression was another nail in the coffin of Gaza’s economy,” Bakr told Tel Aviv Tribune. “Direct losses for the private sector exceeded $3 billion, while indirect losses exceed $1.5 billion. »
The agricultural sector, he added, suffered a direct loss of $300 million.
“This includes uprooting and bulldozing fruit trees on farmland in the north and east near the Israeli fence, meaning it will be a few more years before farmers can harvest what they sowed,” he explained.
“We are talking about a total paralysis of economic activity in Gaza. There are 65,000 economic facilities – ranging from agriculture to service industries – in the private sector that have been destroyed or stopped functioning because of the war. This has led to a huge loss of jobs, which has led to complete food insecurity.”
Furthermore, the small amount of aid allowed into Gaza by Israel is insufficient to cover the needs of nearly a million displaced people staying in UN schools for even one day.
“From October 22 to November 12 – in those 20 days – fewer than 1,100 trucks entered the Gaza Strip,” Bakr said. “Less than 400 of these trucks were transporting food products. Barely 10 percent of Gaza’s food needs are met. This is far from enough, especially considering that before October 7, at least 500 trucks entered the Gaza Strip daily.”
The Gaza Strip, he added, would need 1,000 to 1,500 trucks per day to meet the needs of a population of 2.3 million.
“We had to walk past dead bodies to go shopping.”
At the Deir el-Balah market, Mohammed Yasser Abu Amra looks at the bags of spices and cereals that he sells every day that the truce lasts.
“The war has affected everything from delivery costs to supplies,” the 28-year-old said. “Whatever I have now, once this is over I won’t have the money to buy the same products because they will be more expensive, so that leaves me no choice but to raise prices to reach profitable level.”
The main reason for the price rise, he explained, is the closure of border crossings, which has led wholesalers to sell their products to traders at much higher prices.
“Before, lentils cost 2 shekels ($0.50) per kilo and we sold them for 3 ($0.80),” Abu Amra said. “Now we buy it for 8 shekels ($2) and sell it for 10 ($2.60). »
A bag of beans used to cost 70 shekels ($18) and now costs 150 shekels ($40), he added, while a bag of corn flour previously cost 90 shekels ($19) but now costs 120 shekels ($32). Abu Amra’s neighbor, also a trader, lost his house and warehouse in an Israeli attack, resulting in the loss of $8,000 worth of products.
Another buyer, Imm Watan Muheisan, loudly declared – to the dismay of neighboring traders – that current prices are “insane”.
“If you have 1,000 shekels ($270), you can only buy a handful of food items,” she snapped. “A kilo of potatoes now equals 25 shekels ($6.70), compared to three kilos for 5 shekels ($1.70).”
The mother of seven, who fled her home in the Shati (Beach) refugee camp east of Gaza City four weeks ago, is sheltering at the United Nations Girls’ School in Deir el -Balah where, she said, she and her family barely survive.
“We walked here and must have passed dead bodies in the street,” she explained. “We used to wear our best clothes to the market…we are not here to beg.”
Black market prices take over
Ahmad Abulnaja, an 18-year-old trader, began selling clothes with his older cousin Ali at the start of the war. He acknowledged that wholesalers are behind the price rise.
“Before, a tracksuit sold for 20 to 25 shekels ($5.30 to $6.70), but now it costs 45 ($12),” he said. “That is to say, the merchant I buy from has increased the price because the supply is decreasing.”
Price increases are more pronounced for food items than for clothing, but demand for clothing is also high as displaced people try to buy warm clothes as winter approaches.
Abulnaja’s cousin Ali said he believed informal pricing would persist for a long time because the scale of destruction in Gaza is immense and demand for products shows no signs of slowing.
“It will take time before we find a solution,” he said. “Even if more products enter the Gaza Strip, nothing prevents a trader from selling a product at the price he sets, especially since northern Gaza is cut off from the rest of the Strip. »
There is also the question of the lack of compensation for companies, underlined economic analyst Elhasan Bakr. He highlighted the fact that following previous Israeli wars against the enclave, donor aid has focused on rebuilding housing rather than supporting the economy.
According to UN estimates, the last four Israeli offensives on the Gaza Strip between 2009 and 2021 caused an estimated $5 billion in damage, but none of the damage from the 2014 and 2021 wars has been repaired.
“We are talking about the devastation of basic infrastructure that would require months of reconstruction, from roads to communications towers to electrical installations and sanitation expansions,” Bakr said.
But until then, the Palestinian economy will not recover without a huge international aid effort, and poverty and unemployment levels will reach new records.
“Gaza, in its current stage, is unlivable,” Bakr said, adding that more than 300,000 people have lost their homes.
“It will take us at least five years to get back to where we were before the war started. »
