Gaza tyre shortage impacts motorists, but not protesters
Tyres are favoured item by demonstrators during weekly protests; they rely on supply of old ones
Palestinians in Gaza have coped with shortages of just about everything in more than a decade of border closures — from chocolate to medicines to fuel and building supplies. Now, six months of protests against an IsraeliEgyptian blockade have added an unexpected item to that list: car tyres.
Tyres are a favoured item by demonstrators during the weekly protests — they are set on fire, then tossed towards Israeli occupation troops across the border.
In response, the Israeli regime has halted tyre imports into the strip, sending prices skyrocketing and forcing Gaza motorists to find creative solutions to keep their vehicles on the road.
Taxi driver Khalid Hamad has no spare tyre in his trunk. His tyres are worn down, but he could only afford to change two, replacing them with second-hand ones that aren’t even the standard size recommended by the manufacturer.
“Even when they were cheaper, upgrading my tyres was expensive,” Hamad said as he kicked a bald front tyre that still needs to be changed. “I make 40 shekels (about Dh40) a day these days. Business is down.”
Protesters at the border marches burn old tyres, using the thick black smoke to obscure the vision of Israeli regime snipers. Flaming tyres are also rolled towards the fence.
Ironically, the tyre ban has had no effect on the protesters, who rely on a seemingly endless supply of old ones that are discarded in garages, fields and roadsides across the territory.
Rushdi Al Khour, head of the association of Gaza spare parts merchants, which coordinates imports from Israel, said the tyre shortage has caused severe losses for businessmen.
He said the cost of a pair of tyres has jumped from $120 (Dh441) to $300 since the ban went into effect, a sizeable sum in the economically struggling strip.
Fifteen distributors have lost up to $2 million so far, both in tyres they bought from Israeli companies and in storage fees for shipments stuck at Israeli ports, according to Al Khour.