Gaza's beaches unseasonably empty
The Gaza Municipality has increased rent for the land used to set up beach resorts every summer, forcing many lodge owners to condense their facilities or close altogether.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The owners of beach resorts on the coast of the Gaza Strip are complaining that the municipalities have increased the rental prices for land along the coast. Temporary vacation lodges are built there each summer, offering a rare escape for citizens from the summer heat and power outages that have reached 20 hours per day.
At the start of this summer season, the largest municipality in the Strip, the Municipality of Gaza, set rent for resort owners at $35,000 for the summer season, which starts in early May and ends at the end of October. The amount is very high compared to what the municipalities charged under the Palestinian Authority before 2007, according to Hatem al-Sheikh Khalil, the director of the Public Relations Department in the Municipality of Gaza. The fees at the time did not exceed $2,000 for the entire summer.
The beach resorts are temporary wooden structures built directly on the shores, their palm-thatched roofs covering the bare ground in units of 30 by 60 meters (100 by 200 feet). The lodges offer tents made of fabric and palm branches as well as tables and umbrellas for rent.
Khalil told Al-Monitor there is only one lodge this year on this municipality's beach. There were four last year and 18 before Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007.
