Black marketeers and the virtual elimination of motorised transport have been blamed for the surge in value of the pack animals

Paul Nuki

Global Health Security Editor

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Paul Nuki is Global Health Security Editor at The Telegraph. A senior journalist and former editor at the Sunday Times, he leads coverage on global security threats including epidemics, biosecurity, and international health crises. He has also written and reported extensively on the conflict in Israel and the Middle East.

Published 13 October 2026 6:27pm BST

The price of a donkey in Gaza has jumped from about $1,000 before the war to $30,000 today, according to one of the embattled enclave’s most senior vets.

The surge in the value of the pack animals is due to the virtual elimination of motorised private transport in the strip and the emergence of a small group of black marketeers who have become hugely rich trading in intercepted aid.

The donkeys, whose number has been halved in the past three years, are also now in…