Tobacco.org

• In Gaza Cigarettes are More Expensive than Shrimps  

All of a sudden Gaza has become the most expensive place on earth for tobacco, and today cigarettes are more expensive than shrimps and caviar, Abu Nadi says, while cupping his hand over a match to light his rolled cigarette.

Prices soared after the deposed Hamas government decided to tax cigarettes, resulting in the price of a packet of cigarettes climbing from NIS 100 to NIS 200.

By charging 60 to 70 percent tax on the second packet, cigarettes have become an excellent source of income for Hamas, which has found itself completely isolated in Gaza by Israel and the outside world since taking over the coastal enclave last June. . . .

merchants have placed stands at every corner where they sell packaged cigarettes at insane prices, leaving at least 70% of smokers buying loose tobacco and rolling their own cigarettes.

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