As prosperous as Egypt and with more living space than Paris

You come across important details in the strangest of places.  I am accustomed to thinking of Gaza as essentially an existential refugee camp - overcrowded, dilapidated, impoverished.  The October 7th war has been going on for nearly three months now and there has been little to mitigate that mental picture.

I am reading On the sexual atrocities Hamas committed on Oct. 7 by Alex Berenson.  The subheading is We cannot ignore the depravity of these attacks, or what they mean for women. 

Deep into the piece, I come across this:

(And despite the problems with living conditions in Gaza, it has a per-capita gross domestic product comparable to Egypt or Jordan, and a population density one-third of that of Paris.)

Now, Egypt is no economic Eden and Paris has its own nests of dense poverty.  But those factual points are important.  It argues a greater economic vitality than the trope accommodates and a better built environment than one assumes.  

I wish we had more reporters more factually oriented to ground our understanding of events in useful ways.