BusinessPostCorner.com
No Result
View All Result
Thursday, July 3, 2025
  • Home
  • Business
  • Finance
  • Accounting
  • Tax
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Crypto News
  • Human Resources
BusinessPostCorner.com
  • Home
  • Business
  • Finance
  • Accounting
  • Tax
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Crypto News
  • Human Resources
No Result
View All Result
BusinessPostCorner.com
No Result
View All Result

Single cigarette costs $20 in Gaza as prices for basic goods spiral

June 7, 2024
in Finance
Reading Time: 7 mins read
A A
0
Single cigarette costs  in Gaza as prices for basic goods spiral
ShareShareShareShareShare

Prices for basic goods in the Gaza Strip have spiralled after the closure of its border crossing with Egypt worsened wartime scarcity, sending the cost of a single cigarette as high as $20 and forcing families to sell jewellery and other possessions to buy food.

Vegetables, frozen meat, medication, petrol and cooking fuel have leapt in price to at least triple their prewar levels. Some items now cost dozens of times what they did before Israel’s war with Hamas began, according to information collected by the Financial Times over the past week from the few markets that are still operating in southern Gaza.

The outbreak of war in October sharply constrained the flow of goods into Gaza, but the situation worsened last month after Israel’s military launched an offensive into the southern Gazan city of Rafah, seizing a key border crossing with Egypt and targeting a network of smuggling tunnels.

A kilo of frozen chicken thighs, only available once or twice a week, has leapt to the equivalent in Israeli shekels of $20, more than 10 times its prewar price. Cooking gas, when available, costs $35 a kilo, up from $1.60; car batteries, used for charging phones and electric lamps, sell for more than $500 each; and a litre of petrol, when available, sells for $22.

A Palestinian girl sells tins of food from a makeshift stall in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza © Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images

Solar panels can only be bought on the black market. Shisha tobacco costs $50 for enough for a single pipe or $2,500 for a kilo, while the asking price for one Egyptian Karelia brand cigarette peaked at $140 earlier this year and is at present about $20.

These are ruinous prices even for the few who can afford them. Per capita income in Gaza before the war, when almost half the population was already unemployed because of the Israeli blockade, was about $1,200 a year, according to the World Bank.

By February, 90 per cent of Gazans were unemployed, according to estimates by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, as the enclave’s gross domestic product fell more than 80 per cent.

The conflict, forced displacement and unemployment have exhausted the savings of even middle-class Gazans, while most survive on scarce humanitarian aid. The few functioning ATMs have two-day queues.

Some families are being forced to leave their identification documents as security at shops as they run out of cash, “putting their own safety and future in jeopardy because they need those identification cards to register for aid in the future”, the UN said this month.

A mother feeds her seven-month-old baby a bottle of lentil soup in Gaza
A mother feeds her seven-month-old baby a bottle of lentil soup provided by an aid organisation amid continuing food shortages © Doaa Albaz/Anadolu via Getty Images

Ahmed Abdelhay, the 52-year-old patriarch of a large family displaced to Deir al Balah in central Gaza after the Israeli army destroyed their home in the north, was forced to sell two of his wife’s gold bracelets for $4,000.

That was barely enough to buy frozen chicken, canned food, firewood and summer clothes for the adults and children. He is preparing to sell the last of the family’s gold to buy more food.

“Staying alive is so expensive,” he said.

Prices in Gaza fluctuate depending on how many trucks of commercial goods enter. If trucks carrying fresh vegetables arrive, shopkeepers drop their prices for the day.

After Israel seized the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing last month, the Egyptian government halted the flow of aid into the besieged enclave in protest. It recently resumed supplies under pressure from Washington, but the Rafah border crossing itself remains closed.

An Israeli soldier checks the cargo of an aid truck at the Kerem Shalom border crossing
An Israeli soldier checks an aid truck at a border crossing. As of Friday morning, more than 1,000 trucks’ worth of aid was sitting on the Gazan side of two crossings awaiting dispersal © Abir Sultan/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Northern Gaza is “likely” to be in the grip of famine, and the “Israeli military offensive in Rafah [is] seriously disrupting food distribution channels and worsening access to food” in southern Gaza, the US-funded famine early-warning system network said this week.

As of Friday morning, more than 1,000 trucks’ worth of aid was sitting on the Gazan side of two crossings from Israel awaiting dispersal.

Distribution has been hampered by the fighting, fuel scarcity and the breakdown of law and order. The backlog has cut the number of trucks able to enter the strip, according to Israeli military data.

“Things have become nastier as the situation grows increasingly desperate, the Bedouin clans are more ruthless than ever before [with the looting of convoys]. It’s still Mad Max,” said a person familiar with Gaza humanitarian issues.

Recommended

Soaring profits from the high prices have resulted in local, Egyptian and West Bank-based Palestinian businessmen seeking to get more commercial trucks into Gaza. Two people familiar with the situation said there was a period last month in which commercial goods made up a large portion of incoming convoys.

Palestinian businesspeople can pay exponentially more for truck hire than aid groups, they said. Commercial operations, bringing items such as soft drinks and cigarettes, pay as much as $2,500 per truck for armed local security, something international aid groups are barred from doing.

Businessmen are “competing with international aid groups” to get goods in, one person said. “The focus has been on counting trucks [going into Gaza]. But we have to make sure the right quantity and quality of real aid is getting to the right people [who need it most].”

Cogat, the Israeli military body responsible for civilian affairs in Gaza, said it was “prioritising humanitarian aid”. “We want to get as much aid as possible to the people of Gaza . . . and we’re willing to co-ordinate and facilitate more with the international community,” it said, adding that aid groups’ “logistical capabilities [inside Gaza] need to be greatly increased”.

Credit: Source link

ShareTweetSendPinShare
Previous Post

Body Shop sets deadline to save UK stores and jobs

Next Post

Unite union refuses to endorse Labour’s election manifesto

Next Post
Unite union refuses to endorse Labour’s election manifesto

Unite union refuses to endorse Labour's election manifesto

Bitcoin Price Prediction – Why Traders Are Watching the Next 48 Hours Like Hawks 

Bitcoin Price Prediction – Why Traders Are Watching the Next 48 Hours Like Hawks 

June 27, 2025
Musk’s X appoints ‘king of virality’ in bid to boost growth

Musk’s X appoints ‘king of virality’ in bid to boost growth

July 1, 2025
Bit Digital Ditches Bitcoin Mining for an All-In Ethereum Staking Play, Raises 3M

Bit Digital Ditches Bitcoin Mining for an All-In Ethereum Staking Play, Raises $163M

July 2, 2025
Canada scraps tech tax to advance trade talks with Donald Trump

Canada scraps tech tax to advance trade talks with Donald Trump

June 30, 2025
Pound touches near 4-year high as Trump rattles dollar

Pound touches near 4-year high as Trump rattles dollar

June 26, 2025
Zillow CEO Jeremy Wacksman hits back at antitrust lawsuit claiming market abuse

Zillow CEO Jeremy Wacksman hits back at antitrust lawsuit claiming market abuse

July 1, 2025
BusinessPostCorner.com

BusinessPostCorner.com is an online news portal that aims to share the latest news about following topics: Accounting, Tax, Business, Finance, Crypto, Management, Human resources and Marketing. Feel free to get in touch with us!

Recent News

Bitcoin Price Prediction – Billions in Retirement Funds Could Pour Into BTC as Pension Firms Rush to Add Exposure

Bitcoin Price Prediction – Billions in Retirement Funds Could Pour Into BTC as Pension Firms Rush to Add Exposure

July 3, 2025
US economy surpasses expectations to add 147,000 jobs

US economy surpasses expectations to add 147,000 jobs

July 3, 2025

Our Newsletter!

Loading
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • DMCA

© 2023 businesspostcorner.com - All Rights Reserved!

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Finance
  • Accounting
  • Tax
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Crypto News
  • Human Resources

© 2023 businesspostcorner.com - All Rights Reserved!