KFC chicken smuggled through Gaza tunnels

Local delivery company brings meals to Gazans; al-Yamama advertises on Facebook, receiving tens of orders a week.

Gaza smuggling tunnel 370 (photo credit: Mohammed Salem / Reuters)
Gaza smuggling tunnel 370
(photo credit: Mohammed Salem / Reuters)
An Egyptian delivery company has been smuggling KFC meals through the underground tunnels across the Egypt-Gaza border, The Christian Science Monitor reported on Wednesday.
The Yamama company has advertised its fast food smuggling service on Facebook.
According to the Monitor, the company gets tens of orders a week for KFC meals. Their Facebook page is filled with thanks and recommendations from satisfied Gazan customers, as well as advertisements for potential smugglers looking for delivery work.
The price of a KFC family meal is about 80 Egyptian pounds (about $11) at the KFC restaurant in El-Arish – 35 miles away from the border – but getting it in Gaza costs as much as NIS 100 ($30), with the company seemingly tripling the price of KFC to cover transportation and smuggling fees.
The deliveries go from the restaurant to customers’ doorsteps in about three hours, according to the newspaper.
Muhammad al-Madani, an accountant at Yamama, said they started their new business by chance, the Xinhua media outlet reported.
“We ordered and arranged to bring some meals for us and they arrive after four hours,” Xinhua quoted him as saying.
They then posted a picture of the fast food on their company’s website, and soon got more orders from the people in Gaza, according to the outlet.
Since late last month, they have made four deliveries of KFC food to Gaza, with every delivery including about two dozen combo orders, Xinhua said.