Israeli restrictions drive up prices in Gaza

Gaza City – In front of a toy stall in Gaza City’s Al-Rimal central market, Rania al-Saudi stands with her two young daughters, looking disconcerted by the unusually high prices of toys.

Al-Saudi had promised her daughters that she would buy them two dolls to celebrate Eid, but the exorbitant price of the toys means she simply cannot afford them.

Her eldest daughter, six-year-old Razan, didn’t understand her mother’s worried expressions when Rania asked the seller the price of each toy. At each price, Rania would gasp and say, “Oh my God, it’s so expensive… before it was much cheaper.”

At her daughter’s insistence, Rania begged the seller to lower the prices, but he apologized, saying he couldn’t because it was incredibly difficult to source toys to sell, considering that Israeli restrictions on the importation of items into Gaza.

Rania was not alone. Other parents and children came to the seller’s booth several times to ask about the toys, but none of them made a purchase. In the current context of war in Gaza economic crisisthe prices are simply unaffordable.

Rania, 43, is originally from Shujayea in eastern Gaza, but was displaced by the war to the west of the city. She told Al Jazeera that she had come looking for toys to try to make her daughters smile before the holidays, but her wish was not granted.

“The prices are extremely high and the sellers tell us that the toys have not entered Gaza since the start of the war. But what have our children done to deserve this?”

Rania remembers the many toys her daughters had in their house before it was destroyed, and how she made sure they had toys for every occasion and holiday.

“The Eid holiday is for the joy of children, and children are happy with toys and entertainment. But our children are deprived of everything.”

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Rania tried to calm down her daughter Lulwa, who had started crying after realizing, thanks to her mother’s words, that she would not get the doll she wanted.

“This doll didn’t cost more than 15 shekels ($5) before the war; now it costs 60 shekels ($20),” she told Al Jazeera in frustration. “This is something I can’t afford. Everything is expensive and overpriced.”

Rania’s voice grew heavier as she explained that she couldn’t even buy new Eid clothes for her daughters – a tradition in the Muslim world – because of the high prices.

“My daughters will not be happy this Eid. I wanted to compensate by giving them dolls, but even that is impossible.”

Toys were scarce during warwhich began in October 2023, with bombings and population displacements meaning that most children saw their toys destroyed, lost or abandoned. Rania says her children are bored and have had to develop their own ways of playing.

“All the children in the camp face the same situation, so they spend their time playing simple street games like hopscotch, hide-and-seek or drawing in the sand,” she said.

“But my daughters always wanted a doll. I once tried to make them one, but they didn’t like it.”

Price increase and impact on the market

Toy sellers say they are not responsible for the high prices.

Anwar al-Huwaity has been in the business for 20 years. He told Al Jazeera that his stand is still operating despite Israel’s devastation of Gaza, but that doing so has become extremely difficult.

“Before the war, toys were widely available,” says Anwar. “Today we go from one trader to another, looking. Sometimes we find toys from someone who had them stored, but they sell them at a very high price, up to three times the normal price.”

He added that most toys now arriving in Gaza do not enter through official crossings, but in limited quantities via unofficial routes, making them very difficult to obtain.

The cost of transporting toys to Gaza has become extremely high. Anwar explained that some middlemen charge up to 12,000 shekels ($3,870) for a small shipment, and if it is confiscated or destroyed, the loss falls entirely on the trader.

“We buy goods at high prices, so we have to sell them at high prices too,” Anwar apologized.

Anwar said toys were now 300 percent more expensive than pre-war prices. The holiday season, the main source of income for toy sellers, once brought in between $6,500 and $10,000, he said. Today, he’d be lucky to sell $1,000 worth of stock — and most of that is in bulk sales to other traders, rather than to regular customers.

Anwar may be a businessman, but he shared that the hardest part of his job was seeing kids ask for toys their parents couldn’t afford.

“Many parents cannot buy toys due to the economic situation. People are struggling to get food,” he said.

Anwar’s job went from bringing joy to children to seeing them disappointed.

“I started to hate my work day because I know the prices are exorbitant, and when kids and families see the toys, they get upset, especially around the holidays. »

“People come and buy toys and beg me to lower the price,” he said. “They say, ‘This child is an orphan, this child is an orphan… his parents were killed in the war.’ It seems like all the children in Gaza have been orphaned.”

Restrictions on recreational goods during the Gaza war

Since the outbreak of war in Gaza in October 2023, trade has been heavily restricted due to Israel’s closure of commercial crossings, including Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom), the main entry point for goods into Gaza from Israel.

Israel imposed a total blockade of Gaza in 2023, then for several months in 2025, leading to the declaration of a famine in northern Gaza.

Conditions have improved since a “ceasefire” was declared in October, but Israel continues its regular strikes – and continues to heavily restrict the entry of non-essential commercial goods, including toys and recreational equipment.

Although no law or official statement explicitly prohibits the entry of toys into Gaza, administrative and security restrictions, combined with the prioritization of humanitarian goods, have effectively made the entry of these items almost impossible.

The United Nations noted that restrictions on commercial goods, including toys, have affected the availability of essential and non-essential goods in Gaza.

Near Anwar’s toy stall is another stall run by Ahmed Ziara. This 24-year-old man has been selling toys for several years, but the war forced him to periodically stop his business.

“Before the war, I worked in big toy exhibitions,” Ahmed explains. “Now toys rarely come in and we often have to smuggle them in, sometimes hidden in clothing or other possessions. »

Ahmed confirmed that most of the toys he acquires are old stocks already in Gaza, sold at high prices due to scarcity.

He mentioned that popular Eid holiday toys, which were once cheap, now cost triple or even quadruple their previous price: a toy car that sold for 40 shekels ($13) last year now costs 150 shekels ($48), a small ball that once cost 3 shekels ($1) is now worth 30 shekels ($10), building blocks are almost unavailable, and dolls cost more than 70 shekels ($22.50).

“Buying from traders is difficult, and selling is difficult due to the economic situation,” Ahmed told Al Jazeera.

“Sometimes I have to sell below the planned price just to clear inventory, but most of the time we have to raise prices because of high costs and difficulty in obtaining toys.”

“If conditions improve and toys are allowed to enter normally, prices will return to normal and children and families will be able to enjoy the holidays as before,” he said.

“This job is not easy,” he added in reflection. “Sometimes I sit alone and think what I’m doing is unfair because the prices are extremely high. But still, we like to bring joy to children, even for a short time.”