$30 potatoes, $300 flour: Food prices reach extraordinary heights in Gaza

Deadly chaos and violence have engulfed aid distribution in Gaza since Israel reconstituted the system in May as part of what it said was an effort to keep aid out of the hands of Hamas.

- ADAM RASGON & ASHLEY WU

The mayhem—and the limited amount of aid entering the enclave in the first place—has led many Palestinians to give up trying to get humanitarian aid, even though starvation is mounting.

One of the few alternatives has been to buy food from markets in Gaza, which are stocked with a combination of aid materials—some of which may have been looted—commercial goods, and small amounts of locally grown produce. But the prices of many basic goods have skyrocketed.

"Have I ever seen this anywhere else to this extent?" Arif Husain, the chief economist at the UN World Food Programme, said in a phone interview on Wednesday. "Absolutely not."