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:
“On September 16, 1985, when the Commerce Department announced that the United States had become a debtor nation, the American Empire died.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“While the focus in the landscape of Old World cities was commonly government structures, churches, or the residences of rulers, the landscape and the skyline of American cities have boasted their hotels, department stores, office buildings, apartments, and skyscrapers. In this grandeur, Americans have expressed their Booster Pride, their hopes for visitors and new settlers, and customers, for thriving commerce and industry.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“Friendship is a disinterested commerce between equals; love, an abject intercourse between tyrants and slaves.”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774)