Gaza Humanitarian Crisis Revisited

Two thousand families visited Gaza's Crazy Water Park during the first four days that it was open in May of this year.

The water park features 3 swimming pools, a canal 100 meters long, three water slides, ponds with pedal boats, a restaurant, a cafe, and a quiet area shaded by a tent where adults can sit on carpets and listen to music. The atmosphere is secular, with popular secular tunes playing over the loudspeakers and women in international-style clothing. A recent lifting of the government ban on women smoking in public has made it legal for women to smoke the popular nargilas at the Crazy Water Park's cafe. Construction of the park was completed in six months. Admission is 10 shekels, the equivalent of about $2.60 as of mid-2010, but using the water slide costs another 5 shekels, and going into the pool costs an extra 20 shekels.

The park cost $2 million to build. According to Ayman Barawi, the Crazy Water Park's financial manager.

The Crazy Water Park has 106 employees, not counting about 80 vendors supplying services and goods such as food.

The Crazy Water Park is one of a number of seaside tourist resorts constructed in a $20 million building binge. Egyptian journalist Ashraf Abu Al-Houl write in Al-Ahram, that Crazy Water Park is one of a rapidly growing group of Gaza pleasure parks, including Zahrat Al-Madain, the Al-Bustan resort and the Bisan City tourist village.

According to Egyptian journalist Ashraf Abu Al-Houl writing in Al-Ahram, "A sense of absolute prosperity prevails, as manifested by the grand resorts along and near Gaza's coast. Further, the sight of the merchandise and luxuries filling the Gaza shops amazed me. Merchandise is sold more cheaply than in Egypt, although most of it is from the Egyptian market.