Hamas moves to control prices in Gaza after Israel suspends deliveries

Israel’s block on deliveries into the war-stricken Gaza Strip has led to price increases and fears of food shortages, prompting punitive measures from the Hamas-run authorities against merchants, according to Hamas sources and witnesses.Members of the Hamas-run police force were deployed in local markets across Gaza, asserting their presence on the ground despite a 15-month Israeli aerial and ground offensive against the Palestinian fighter group.They questioned and detained merchants, ordering them not to raise prices during a standoff over a ceasefire deal, and seized supplies that were later resold at lower prices, the four sources and witnesses said.Local authorities also urged residents to report misconduct by merchants, saying that food supplies in Gaza would last just two weeks."Punishing junior sellers in markets is good, but Hamas must act against the big merchants who control what we eat,” said one witness, asking not to be named for fear of retribution.Israel announced on Sunday that it was stopping the entry of goods into Gaza, citing a dispute with Hamas over how to proceed with the phased, US-backed ceasefire that brought a halt to heavy fighting in January.Hamas has urged mediators to pressure Israel to begin talks on the second stage and reopen Gaza’s crossings. Israel’s foreign minister said yesterday that Hamas had been using aid to continue fighting Israel. Israel says Gaza has enough food for many months. Humanitarian agencies, however, say supplies for food, medicine and shelter in Gaza are limited and that stranded aid might spoil. Philippe Lazzarini, head of UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA, said Israel’s suspension of deliveries threatened lives among Gaza’s 2.3mn population, exhausted by war."Aid and these basic services are non-negotiable. They must never be used as weapons of war,” Lazzarini said in a post on X.At a soup kitchen in Gaza’s Khan Younis, where dozens of children holding pots lined up to receive soup, organisers said the suspension of deliveries would hit their provision of free meals for 20,000 people.The meals were meant to cover the fasting month of Ramadan, which began on Saturday. But merchants had raised meat prices, meaning the menu had to change. "The kitchen’s administration prepared a plan for the month of Ramadan, but the closure of the crossings has disrupted all the plans,” said one of the organisers, Abu Omar."On the first day of Ramadan, we served approximately 1,200 to 1,400 portions of meat and rice, but the closure of the crossings and the disappearance of goods in the markets led to us serving ‘mujadara’ (a rice and lentil dish) and soups today,” Abu Omar told Reuters.