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Many in the Gaza Strip have started bartering for essential goods, predominantly food items, due to the severe shortage of basic necessities resulting from Israel's total siege.
People are using social media as well as approaching others in person to offer items they have for those they need, as a way to survive the growing famine and shortage crisis sweeping the Strip, which has been under complete blockade for more than two months.
During this time, Israel has prevented all food, goods, humanitarian aid and medical supplies from entering the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli blockade has seen stocks of vital goods depleted and has led to a full-blown famine, with it reported last week that over 70,000 children in Gaza had been hospitalised with acute malnutrition.
As of 5 May 2025, 57 children had died due to malnutrition-related health complications since the war began, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza.
Israel's deliberately manufactured famine has also been exacerbated by unprecedented hikes in the prices of the scant quantities of basic food items still available.
In the current circumstances, a growing number of Palestinians have resorted to the pre-modern system of bartering as a means to survive, with money having lost its real-world value in a market suffering from near-total paralysis.
Necessity imposed by famine
This ancient system has been revived due to desperation induced by the famine and the dwindling resources due to the siege. Both in markets and on social media platforms, it has become common to see posts like: "I'm offering a fridge for a bag of flour," or "I need baby formula and will swap it for new clothes."
More than two months have passed since the closure of the border crossings into Gaza, which has led to an over 500 percent increase in the prices of foods and basic commodities – at least, those which haven't been depleted completely, says Ayed Abu Ramadan, chair of Gaza's Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture.
According to UN reports, poverty levels in the Gaza Strip have soared to over 90 percent, and unemployment rates have exceeded 85 percent.
The vast majority of Palestinians in Gaza lack any source of income that could guarantee a minimum standard of living — a situation that portends a humanitarian and social catastrophe with long-term implications.
Upending the economic structure
The profound transformation in the structure of the local economy, which is now based on commodity exchange rather than goods being sold for cash, indicates an economy in freefall. Besides the shortages and hyperinflation, there is also a liquidity crisis due to the ban on imports and the closure of banks.
Yasser Ziada, a father of five from Shujaiya neighbourhood in Gaza City, said to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, The New Arab's Arabic-language sister edition: "As there are no longer any opportunities to buy, I'm no longer looking for cash, but for someone who has what I need. I have beans, which I've offered to swap for enough bread to last us a number of days."
Ziada explained that he was forced to exchange his beans for the more urgent commodity, bread, because he couldn't afford to buy flour at the current sky-high price.
Ziada's story is far from exceptional; swapping goods has fast become a widespread phenomenon across the Strip, which signals the almost total collapse of the markets. People in Gaza no longer have the money to purchase essential items — those still available — after their savings have been exhausted by the prolonged war.
Mother-of-three Umm Mohammed Shanino, who was displaced with her family from Gaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood, says she swapped a kilo of sugar with half a kilo of lentils and some vegetables and legumes in order to prepare a meal for her family.
Shanino says she had two kilos of sugar from an old coupon she'd received during Ramadan, and had decided to exchange one kilo with some other foods she had run out of to make a meal, being unable to buy any more due to the high prices.
"I posted on a women's group saying I needed to swap some sugar for other food items. An hour later, a friend contacted me, and we started exchanging items. I don't have money, but I can't see my children go to bed hungry. Bartering wasn't a choice — it was a necessity."
Exchanging a washing machine for a bag of flour
Khaled al-Samri, an unemployed construction worker, offered his washing machine in exchange for flour after running out of his last kilo. He says the fact that there was no electricity to operate it had encouraged him to make the decision, despite his reluctance to trade his expensive washing machine for flour, which, in normal times, was such a cheap commodity.
However, he says, Gaza's current reality is one in which the scant amount of flour available in the Strip is more vital than anything else, which is reflected in the fact that a single bag (25kg) has now rocketed to over 1,500 Israeli shekels ($1 = 3.6 shekels), equivalent to around $420.
The bartering trend points to more than just a mechanism for overcoming poverty; it is a clear sign of the collapse of the economic cycle in the Strip, where accessing a bag of flour or a carton of milk has become infinitely more important than possessing any electronic device or item of furniture. Priorities have firmly shifted to the basics of survival: food, water, and medicine.
While some view the move into a bartering system as reflecting the resilience of Gazan society and its ability to adapt to the impossible, others highlight that it represents the complete economic collapse of life in the Strip and a catastrophic humanitarian crisis that requires urgent international intervention, especially with the increasing reports of severe malnutrition and high mortality rates among children.
On a related note, compounding the difficulties facing Gazans when it comes to accessing food are the lengths people are being forced to go to cook what little they have. Due to Israel's total ban on cooking gas for over 19 months now, and amidst a severe scarcity of firewood, Palestinians are burning whatever material they can find to provide the heat to cook.
These materials include old shoes and clothes, many of which contain nylon and plastics. Burning these materials emits toxic fumes and harmful chemicals, posing a serious threat to the already compromised health of the population, especially children, the elderly, and those with chronic conditions. This situation coincides with the continued closure of border crossings by Israeli forces since March 2.
This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition with additional reporting. To read the original article, click here.
Translated by Rose Chacko
This article is taken from our Arabic sister publication, Al-Araby Al Jadeed and mirrors the source's original editorial guidelines and reporting policies. Any requests for correction or comment will be forwarded to the original authors and editors
Have questions or comments? Email us at: info@alaraby.co.uk
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