Gaza: High prices and high costs of living, and constant anxiety before Eid

At a time when Gaza is preparing to receive the blessed Eid Al-Adha, the fourth and last group of pilgrims from the Strip arrived on Friday, the sixteenth of June, to Mecca to perform the Hajj, as the number of members of the Gaza Strip mission is more than 2,900 pilgrims and needy people who have the capabilities to provide travel fares and special tickets. Hajj due to the high prices, where an amount of more than four thousand dollars must be paid to obtain the opportunity for Hajj per person, which is a very, very high amount that only a small part of the population of the Gaza Strip can provide.

We go back to Gaza and start with the exciting controversy, starting with the high prices of the Hajj season for this year by about 700 dollars compared to last year, as this poses a major dilemma for the population, most of whom are poor, but this situation is considered partial and unique within the framework of a group of other serious challenges facing the residents of the Gaza Strip Their number is nearly two million citizens. Poverty, high prices, and the high cost of living are all factors that disturb their comfort and cause a negative impact on the Palestinian economy in the Strip, which is forced to create a state of balance with the neighboring economy based on trade exchange movements. Therefore, the conclusion of the pre-Eid al-Adha situation can be described as disastrous for the citizens of the Strip. Given that the war of high prices and high prices has already begun …

The movement appears to be thriving towards the markets and commercial centers in the Gaza Strip and the cities of the Strip as a whole, especially the main ones. However, this movement is nothing more than another attempt by the Gazan citizen to acquire the necessary necessities only in order to draw the smile of Eid on the faces of children, sons, and young girls whose families should provide them with a margin, albeit a simple one. It makes Eid an occasion for joy and happiness…

Many families go to the markets of the Strip and are forced to buy very little. Since Eid al-Adha comes 70 days after Eid al-Fitr, most families do not buy new clothes for Eid for their children, preferring to rely on what was bought in the previous Eid. Prices are high, merchants do not cooperate, and their treatment is not good, which increases the burden on the hidden families.

Despite monitoring by the responsible authorities, the prices of some items of holiday food, in addition to clothes, rise dramatically, which exhausts citizens.

The rise in prices and the high cost of living schedule do not correspond to any improvement in salaries that do not exist in the first place or the aid that ranges in the same place, where the citizens wonder: Are there salaries and an increase in them until prices are raised in this insane way, hoping that the siege of the Strip will end until conditions improve and prices return to normal. .

Regarding the reasons behind the high prices of Eid clothes, clothing merchants explain that there are many reasons, including; The high price of the dollar against the shekel and also the low price of the Turkish lira against the dollar, which caused an increase in the prices of clothes inside Turkey, from which Gaza imports many pieces of clothing, in addition to the effects and shadows of the Corona pandemic in the last period, as this affected the clothing industry in China, which was not produced as well. It was previously, as it ended the epidemic measures only at the end of last year, and therefore no goods were available from China, the leading manufacturer of clothing …

Among the reasons are also the government measures that impose customs and taxes on the seeds imported from abroad, in addition to attempts to support the national product and place it in a price list close to the international and Arab prices surrounding the Gaza Strip. Also, the Israeli blockade until this moment limits the ability of national factories to cover the needs of the local markets. The besieged sector suffers from the deterioration of the humanitarian, economic and living conditions as a result of the continuous and strict occupation blockade, and the sanctions imposed by the authority on the sector, which exacerbated poverty and unemployment and the persistence of the problem of power outages, which increases the suffering of various groups.

Despite the position of the Ministry of Economy in Gaza regarding the rise in prices and the state of popular discontent with them, and despite the Ministry of Consumer Protection’s continuous follow-up of the markets, especially in the days preceding the holidays, after complaints that come from citizens and their grumbling about the high prices, the general situation of prices cannot Satisfaction in the hearts of Gaza's poor citizens, mainly...

The many economic consequences due to the high prices in the Gaza Strip will inevitably and once again affect the citizens in the Gaza Strip and will greatly affect their well-being. It will also contribute continuously to affecting the social fabric in the Strip with impressive blows through which the citizens of the Gaza Strip continue to be classified into well-off, poor, very poor, and destitute. It cannot inspire luxury or even be described as a decent living. The economic and living gaps are huge and require efforts and many years until we find a thread of happiness that brings back to the Gaza Strip a very small part of its luster.