A few days ago, police working under Hamas who were patrolling a market in Gaza City came upon a vendor who was selling tomatoes for the wildly inflated price of NIS 25 per kilogram, or about $3.60 a pound.

The officers seized the produce, citing a law against price gouging meant to protect Gazans amid a reduction in goods entering the Strip since the outbreak of the war in Iran on February 28, according to Anas Arafat, a Gaza City resident who witnessed the incident.

“I saw them confiscate tomatoes that were being sold for 25 shekels per kilo. They then sold them for 10 shekels per kilo — the price before the war — and even then they did not allow people to buy more than a kilo,” he told The Times of Israel in a phone interview.

With attention in Israel and the region largely on the war in Iran and fighting in Lebanon, Hamas security forces in Gaza have stepped up their visibility in Gaza over the last two weeks, according to locals who spoke with The Times of Israel and corroborated by footage circulating in the enclave.

Alongside Hamas’s increased presence have also been reports of rising violence against Gazans, as the terror group ostensibly holding the enclave seeks to reassert power.

Hamas itself has publicized some of this itself. On March 10, the group’s Interior Ministry released images of Hamas police, whom it said were “checking commodity prices in Gaza and taking strict measures against traders who violated the law.”

In the photographs, the officers appear in uniform, and some have their faces uncovered. This is in contrast to footage from immediately after the October 2025 ceasefire, when armed policemen were often seen in civilian clothing and wearing face coverings.

Now, Hamas no longer appears to fear showing its face. Meanwhile, residents who previously spoke to foreign media by name now demand anonymity. They did not explicitly explain why, though one said he “does not want problems,” hinting at fears of repercussions from Hamas.

Behind the stepped-up price enforcement lies a reduction in the amount of food entering the Strip since the start of Israel’s campaign against Iran.

At the outset of the war, Israel closed the crossings into Gaza. According to a statement from the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the move was taken “in light of the missile threat and the declaration of a state of emergency and public restrictions in Israel – in order to prevent risk to human life.” The crossings remained shut for several days.

In response to a query from The Times of Israel, COGAT said the terminals were gradually reopened. Both humanitarian and commercial goods have been entering the Strip, though it’s unclear how much.

On March 10, COGAT said on its X account that goods were entering Gaza daily. However, COGAT officials acknowledged to The Times of Israel that in recent weeks only several hundred trucks per day have been entering — a lower figure than before the Iran war. They did not provide an exact number.

According to UN data on humanitarian goods entering Gaza through affiliated organizations, 879 truckloads were offloaded at border crossings between March 1 and March 17, 410 of which were moved to distribution........

© The Times of Israel