UN rice resold for 10 euros per kilo and 50% commissions to get cash: this is how people survive on the black market in Gaza.
It's not yet dawn in the ruins of the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, but Omar is already awake and thinking about one thing: how he'll get food for his family of six in the next few hours. "Every day is the same. The anxiety is about what we'll eat, where I'll get it, how we'll pay for it," explains the 40-year-old Palestinian journalist in a WhatsApp interview, in which he prefers not to give his real name.
On an empty stomach, or at most after drinking a glass of unsweetened tea, he walks more than two kilometers to reach the area's markets, if that's what you can call the lines of people who sell what little they have in makeshift stalls, or what they have obtained from packages thrown from humanitarian flights or from the frequent looting of the few humanitarian aid trucks that enter Gaza.
Omar stops at one of the stalls. The vendor is selling rice dropped from airplanes, manufactured in the United States to "feed hungry children," and with a warning on the packaging that it cannot be sold because it's donated. But in August 2025 in Gaza, this half-kilo package costs 20 shekels, or five euros.
“These vendors are citizens like you and me, but there are also criminals here, small-time gangs, and very desperate people. You have to be careful,” Omar explains. “Practically every morning, I hear people on the street saying they're going to the Zikim border crossing, here in the north, where trucks often enter, to try to rob them in groups. They risk their lives to eat . If they succeed, some of them resell some of their things here later,” he adds.
A small container of hummus costs five euros, and a portion of canned meat costs 30 shekels (7.5 euros). The vendor offers rice, which he takes from a sack marked with the WFP (UN World Food Programme) initials. “Ten euros a kilo,” he announces. It’s not hard to guess how it got there. Omar buys it.
The other day I bought oil. It came from an airplane. I paid 270 shekels (68 euros) for a liter. It's outrageous, but I was able to buy it.
Omar, Gazan journalist
“The situation is still horrible, but today, at least, we can buy three kilos of flour for 100 shekels (25 euros), which is what a kilo cost a few days ago,” explains Omar, attributing this to Israel’s allowing more humanitarian flights and an increase in the number of trucks entering Gaza. This has meant that his family is eating three slices of bread a day instead of one, as was the case a couple of weeks ago. But this journalist’s anxiety has increased in recent days, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu obtained the approval of his cabinet for a total occupation of the Gaza City area. If this happens, Omar fears a new displacement to the south and worries about whether his mother, diabetic and quite weak, will be able to survive it.
The abuses and chaos in these Gaza markets are the clearest example of the consequences of the dismantling of the humanitarian aid distribution system organized for 50 years by the UN, specifically by the WFP and the Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA). To replace it, Israel launched food distribution points in late May (four so far, all in the southern Gaza Strip) organized by the Gaza Humanitarian Fund, also supported by the United States. According to the UN, more than 850 starving Palestinians have died in these areas, most of them shot by the Israeli army or by foreign security personnel who manage these controversial centers.
“ Hamas is to blame for all of this. They play on our suffering. They are opportunists and have no morals,” accuses a Gazan father from the northern Gaza Strip, speaking freely about the Islamist movement ruling Gaza because his name will not be published in this interview. “People here think like me. Hamas loses popular support every day, but they rule with weapons, and anyone who speaks out pays the price. They are the worst thing that could have happened to the Palestinian people,” he says bitterly.
In a group to protect themselvesAt the Yabalia market, a package of spaghetti also sells for 20 shekels (five euros), and a kilo of lentils for 40 shekels (10 euros). Omar buys them and adds a sachet with a few grams of yeast. “The other day I bought oil. It came from an airplane. I paid 270 shekels (68 euros) for a liter. It's outrageous, but I was able to buy it,” he explains.
Omar says robberies don't usually occur in these informal markets, but they do occur on the way home. "When you've bought food, you should always go in groups to protect yourself," he warns.
"Humanitarian aid entering Gaza is barely a trickle" compared to the needs of the Strip's more than two million inhabitants, where more than a third of the population goes without food for days, according to the WFP, which estimates that the territory currently needs more than 62,000 tons of life-saving aid per month.
The organization estimates that from May 21, when Israel again allowed the entry of humanitarian aid after more than two months of a total blockade, until the end of July, 1,387 trucks carrying more than 26,000 tons of food were able to enter the territory through the Kerem Shalom (in the south) and Zikim (in the north) border crossings. Since July 27, Israel has authorized an increased volume of aid, and in 11 days, the WFP managed to deliver more than 800 trucks with a total of 10,400 tons of basic food items to Gaza.
"If the entry and distribution of aid were better organized, everything could improve very quickly, but if Israel doesn't allow it and the situation worsens again, I don't even want to think about what could happen," Omar says fearfully.
Because what happens when the aid arrives? A UNICEF official recently explained to this newspaper that trucks are unloaded in buffer zones, and other Palestinian vehicles, with Israeli-authorized drivers, come to load and distribute. This process can take days.
The WFP estimates that Gaza currently requires more than 62,000 tons of life-saving aid per month.
“During these delays, crowds of hungry people anticipate the arrival of our trucks and gather along the transport routes,” the WFP explains in a report, corroborating Omar’s account. What happens then is captured in a shocking video released by the organization, in which hordes of people can be seen looting a truck. “As we cannot distribute in an organized manner, kitchens that prepare hot meals are not receiving our supplies, and bakeries cannot reopen,” the organization laments.
The Gaza Chamber of Commerce, which issues reports on the state of markets in the Strip, accused Israel of "deliberately refusing to provide the necessary protection for humanitarian aid convoys and even targeting local security personnel." This local organization also produces weekly reports, and in the latest one published on its website, corresponding to the week of June 24-30 , the numbers speak for themselves: of the 409 trucks that entered the Strip at that time, 354 were looted.
52% commissions for having cashIn these informal markets, alongside the vendors, there are people offering cash. No bills or coins have entered the Gaza Strip since the war began, and the banks are closed. These resellers, who, according to numerous Gazans this newspaper has spoken to in recent weeks, represent small-scale mafias or more powerful groups that still have significant amounts of cash, currently charge a 52% commission on each sale.
That is, if Omar purchases products for a total of 200 shekels, or 50 euros, and he doesn't have cash but does have money in the bank, he can make a transfer to this intermediary. He'll have to send a little over 400 shekels (the price of the products plus the 52% commission), and his purchase, instead of 50, will ultimately cost him 100 euros.
"They win, and I lose. At least I have money so I don't starve to death because I'm still receiving a salary, but the majority of Gaza's population has lost their jobs," he explains.
And what do people who have nothing do? “They die trying to get food, they steal if they're desperate, something that never happened in Gaza, or they wait for humanitarian aid. It's terrifying,” Omar replies.
Hamas is to blame for all this. They play on our suffering. They are opportunistic and immoral people.
Omar, Gazan journalist
Further south, in the vast displacement camps in the Al Mawasi area, where tens of thousands of Palestinians are crowded , Osama, who lives with his wife and parents in a tent, explains that the situation remains critical and that there are increasing numbers of displaced people in the area. Last Wednesday, he bought a kilo of eggplant, which some people are now able to grow, and paid 15 euros for it. He also returned home with a jar of tahini, a sesame paste for which he paid five euros, and also bought some wood for a fire and cooking, which cost another five euros. “Here, almost all the products are stolen,” estimates this young teacher. “I paid more than 100 shekels (25 euros) for these three things, which are not enough for the four of us to eat… Fortunately, I still have some cash left, because I wouldn't have been able to pay the 52% commission on top of that,” he explains. “Luckily, I was able to buy something, because many days I come back empty-handed,” he concludes.
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