It is surrounded on all sides, regularly bombed, and plagued by shortages of vital medicines. Yet in the lead up to Christmas, the isolated Gaza Strip has – for once – ample supplies of something the rest of the world craves but can rarely find: a brand new PlayStation 5.
Sony’s flagship video game console is hot property this holiday season, although most people who have asked for one will be sorely disappointed on Christmas morning.
A global supply-chain crisis twinned with a shortage of semiconductors – vital computer chips used in the console – has kept stock scarce. While secondhand, resold and stolen PS5s can be found, they are rare and often cost much more than the £359-£449 retail price tag.
In downtown Gaza City, the price is also way above the official figure. Still, unused PS5s can be seen in a few shop windows.
Hassan al-Baik, who runs an electronics outlet, has five consoles but says he has trouble selling them in the impoverished enclave. “There is no great demand for the devices in Gaza because their prices are still high,” he said. Baik says his few customers are mostly gaming cafes, makeshift arcades that cover the steep price by charging Palestinians to play.
The first PS5s arrived in Gaza in April as contraband, Baik says. They were sourced in Dubai, taken apart, smuggled in pieces through Egypt and reassembled in Gaza. A handful sold for close to £1,200.
However, Baik said Israel has in the past few months allowed suppliers in Gaza to import consoles from Israeli traders – at a premium. The price has since dropped in Gaza to £765-£860, although many linger on shelves.
At least three shops have PS5 stock. Adham Masri, a salesman at Mobile Zone said he sells three to five devices a month. “But demand is limited,” he said.
When Sony launched the PS5 just over a year ago, US and UK retailers were overwhelmed by demand, with multiple shopping websites crashing as people rushed to buy one.
During the past year, the Japanese entertainment and electronics conglomerate has drip-fed consoles, which normally sell out in seconds. Gamers hoping to buy one spend hours scouring the internet for information – often leaked by shop employees – on where and when the next stock “drop” will appear.
Gaza is an unusual location to have PS5 supplies. Israel and Egypt, citing security concerns, have maintained a crippling blockade for years and residents refer to the territory as “the world’s largest prison” because of their inability to travel freely.
Israel regularly prevents common items, from cement to batteries to medical equipment, from entering Gaza, claiming they could be used by the military group Hamas to build homemade rockets. UN experts say the blockade is a form of collective punishment for the strip’s 2 million residents.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, says 80% of the population depends on international aid. Separately, a World Bank report last month said unemployment reached nearly 50% earlier this year, even before the devastating 11-day war in May. “This the highest unemployment rate in the World Bank database,” it said. Three out of four graduates in Gaza have no employment prospects, the report said. “Despite their severity, these numbers fail to fully portray the degree of suffering of Gaza’s citizens,” the World Bank report said.
Still, even the most coveted luxury products will find a way to get into the strip.
The PS5’s main competitor product, Microsoft’s Xbox Series X, is also available in Gaza, Baik said, although it, too, finds few buyers. “I got a request recently,” he said of the new Xbox – but only for two consoles.