Grocery shopping in Gaza

Aphrodisiac gum might be getting through the Gaza blockade, but not much else is, according to this Atlantic piece on grocery shopping in the Gaza Strip.

Not for nothing is this a holiday meal: the chicken required to make this dish has increased more than 100 percent in price since the bombings last January. One chicken can now cost as much as $18, as three of Gaza's 11 chicken farms were completely leveled by Israeli tanks, two more were severely damaged, and even the farms not directly damaged lost most of their animals for lack of fuel with which to heat the henhouses.

Israel insists on calling its blockade a "restriction of luxury products," which, as the Atlantic points out, includes such "luxuries" as rice and beef.