Can't find a PS5 console? Just head to Gaza City

It is surrounded on all sides, regularly bombed, and plagued by shortages of vital medicines. Yet in the lead-up to Christmas, the isolated Gaza Strip has had ample supplies of something the rest of the world craves but can rarely find: a brand new PlayStation 5. Sony’s flagship video game console is hot property this holiday season, although most people who have asked for one will be disappointed on Christmas morning.

- Hazem Balousha GAZA CITY and Oliver Holmes

A global supply-chain crisis twinned with a shortage of semiconductors – vital computer chips used in the console – has kept stock scarce. While secondhand, resold and stolen PS5 s can be found, they are rare and often cost much more than the retail price tag of about $ 500.

In Gaza City, the price is also way above the official figure. Still, brand new PS5s can be seen in a few shop windows.

Hassan al-Baik, who runs an electronics outlet, has five consoles but says he has trouble selling them in the impoverished enclave. “There is no great demand for the devices in Gaza because their prices are still high,” he said. Baik says his few customers are mostly gaming cafes, makeshift arcades that cover the steep price by charging Palestinians to play.