GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Gaza’s donkey carts — slow, but cheap and essential for survival in this scruffy land — have finally met their match. They are being edged out by an Asian import, a blend of motorcycle and miniature pickup.
Smuggled by the hundreds from Egypt in recent months, motor rickshaws, also known as tuk-tuks, have taken over congested streets of the Palestinian territory, in part because fuel has become cheaper than donkey feed.
Some haul cargo. Others have been jazzed up with upholstered seats, colorful canopies and fringed curtains to serve as taxis, school buses or pizza delivery vans.
They have become a badge of Gazans’ ability to adapt to tough circumstances, including an Israeli border blockade and authoritarian rule by the Islamic militant group Hamas.
Tuk-tuks also have helped create jobs, perhaps making a small dent in unemployment running more than 30 percent.
Ahmed Madhoun, who says he can’t get a teaching job because he is not a Hamas supporter, bought a tuk-tuk four months ago for $2,200, or roughly what a day laborer would make in four months. Madhoun now earns between $8 and $14 a day distributing merchandise to shops and delivering U.N. food rations.
This week, Madhoun and other tuk-tuk drivers lined up outside the U.N. food distribution center in the Shati refugee camp where just a few months ago, donkey carts would have been waiting to take on sacks of rice and flour.
Economist Mohsen Ramadan said about 20 percent of loan applicants at his micro finance agency want money for tuk-tuks.
Still, the economic outlook remains dim in the Gaza Strip. Economic activity picked up after Israel eased the blockade over the summer — in response to international criticism over its deadly raid of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla — and allowed in consumer goods. But growth is elusive because Israel, citing security concerns, restricts the import of construction supplies and raw materials, and forbids most exports.
Israel and Egypt slammed shut Gaza’s borders in 2007 after Hamas, an Iranian-backed group that has fired thousands of rockets at Israel, seized the territory.
At the height of the blockade, smuggling tunnels under the Egyptian border were Gaza’s lifeline. Smuggling has eased because consumer goods now come from Israel via a land crossing. The tuk-tuks are still imported through the tunnels because Egypt, their waystation, does not allow trade with Gaza.
Tuk-tuks started appearing on Gaza’s streets in significant numbers several months ago, with demand driven by cheap smuggled fuel. Once the first tuk-tuks were imported, their advantages quickly became apparent, generating more demand.
Transporting passengers, especially children, has been banned as too dangerous, said Lt. Col. Ali al-Nadi of the Gaza traffic police, but people of all ages can be seen crowded into the little vehicles.
The Transportation Ministry has recently begun requiring registration of tuk-tuks and says it has so far logged 1,500. But nobody knows exactly how many tuk-tuks are in the territory, which is about twice the size of Washington, D.C.
Numbers
1,500 Tuk-tuks registered with the Transportation Ministry, but no one knows how many are actually in Gaza Strip
450 miles Distance a tuk-tuk can go on $14 of gas. For the same price, a donkey owner can feed his animal for a week.
$2,200 Price of a tuk-tuk, or roughly what a day laborer would make in four months
