GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Hoping to make enough money to cover the costs of obtaining licenses for their resorts, owners of beach resorts in the Gaza Strip are looking forward to the summer season. Unlike previous years, these owners had to pay thousands of dollars this year, with some opting for merging their resorts with adjacent ones to share the license fees.

This was the case for Ghoroub, Houssam and Alaa Resort, which is made up of three separate resorts that were forced to merge due to higher license fees paid to the Gaza municipality in a bid to dodge potential losses amid the difficult economic circumstances in Gaza. The current economic situation is also reflected in the prices of services offered by the resorts.

Ismail Nashbat, the manager of Ghoroub, Houssam and Alaa Resort, told Al-Monitor, “In granting licenses for beach resorts, the municipality of Gaza adopts a bidding system in which the highest bidder is awarded the right to build a resort, regardless of the person’s seniority, as we have been in the area for decades and have built a reputation there.”

He said, “The municipality set a minimum fee of $28,000 in the area where our resort is located — Sheikh Ijlin. As a result, we agreed to a merger with the two resorts next to us in order to share the license fee. We entered the bidding under the name of the new resort. But due to the competition, we had to raise our bid to $30,000 for fear of losing our position and reputation.”