Opinion & Analysis
Thirty merchant families control pricing for 2.2 million Gaza consumers
Image credit: Shehab Wire (EN)
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Fewer than 30 merchant families effectively control commodity supply and pricing in Gaza's market of 2.2 million people, Shehab Wire reported. The families hold exclusive coordination rights to import goods through the Kerem Shalom crossing, replacing normal supply-and-demand market mechanisms with what analysts describe as a scarcity-based monopoly system.
Pricing in Gaza no longer follows standard economic law but instead reflects the artificial constraints imposed by the concentrated control of imports, according to the report.
