Commerce
An average-sized tunnel costs $90,000 to construct and run; some investors in the tunnels have been defrauded. According to one report, the cost of smuggling a person from Egypt into the Gaza strip is $1,000. A Kalashnikov rifle in the Gaza Strip can cost up to $1,000 compared with 2,000 Egyptian pounds ($320) across the border. A single cartridge used to cost $3 in Gaza compared with $0.08 in Egypt, but since the Hamas coup, and the subsequent capture of the Fatah weapons' storage, the prices have dropped.
The tunnels are used to import a wide range of goods, including the horses that race at the Faisal Equestrian Club. The tunnels were also used to smuggle in construction materials for the Gaza Mall and the Crazy Water Park.
Read more about this topic: Gaza Strip Smuggling Tunnels
Famous quotes containing the word commerce:
“It was you that broke the new wood,
Now is a time for carving.
We have one sap and one root—
Let there be commerce between us.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“I leave you, home,
when I’m ripped from the doorstep
by commerce or fate. Then I submit
to the awful subway of the world....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“The lessons taught in great books are misleading. The commerce in life is rarely so simple and never so just.”
—Anita Brookner (b. 1938)