The Sunday car boot sale, Gaza city style

13 April 2012

In Britain, the most dangerous items on offer tend to be dodgy second-hand electricals and a few old Val Doonican records.

Visit a car boot sale in Gaza city, however, and this scene is more likely to confront you.

Spread out on the bonnet of a car is a range of deadly armoury, including Israeli-made Uzi submachine guns, Iraqi copies of AK47

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A potential customer tries one of the weapons available at this Gaza City car boot sale

In our main picture, a customer tries out a Heckler & Koch rifle, while in the other a stallholder lays out his collection of homemade fragmentation grenades.

The casual availability of high-powered weaponry in the Palestinian enclave begs the question, what hope is there for peace?

Thousands of guns have been delivered to the security forces in recent years - before vanishing - and many more have been smuggled through in tunnels under the border with Egypt.

Armed gangs roam Gaza's streets, claiming control for the government of Hamas, the Fatah presidency of Mahmoud Abbas or one of a dozen splinter groups.

Bloody firefights are common, raising the spectre of a full-scale civil war.

Here is what is on offer in our pictures:

1. Heckler & Koch G3 7.62mm assault rifle. Probably German-made. With non-standard sniper scope.

2. Uzi 9mm machine pistol. Ex-Israeli.

3. Pot of .22 pistol ammunition.

4. 9mm pistol ammunition (in white bag).

5. Kalashnikov AK47. Appears to be Iraqi-made copy of Soviet design.

6. Kalashnikov AK47. Appears to be East German or Polish-made.

7. Kalashnikov AK47 (Iraqi-made).

8. Bag of Soviet-made 7.62mm ammunition, to fit assault rifles.

9. Spare magazines for AK47s.

10. Uzi 9mm machine pistol.

11. 9mm pistol. Probably South Korean.

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