The Jerusalem Post newspaper, the Crazy Water Park is one of a number of seaside tourist resorts constructed in a $20 million building binge. According to The Independent, some sources regard the Crazy Water Park as one of a group of Hamas business ventures operating since the late 2000s. According to the Reuters, the resort was built by a "Hamas-linked charity," According to Egyptian journalist Ashraf Abu Al-Houl writing in Al-Ahram Weekly, the park was one among a rapidly growing group of Gaza leisure parks, including Zahrat al-Madain, the Al-Bustan resort and the Bisan City tourist village, so many of which were completed between his visit to Gaza in February 2010 and his return in July 2010 as to make Gaza "almost unrecognizable." He continued, "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, and there are added shipping costs and costs for smuggling it via the tunnels – so that it could be expected to be more expensive.... the siege was broken even before Israel's crime against the ships of the Freedom Flotilla in late May; everything already was coming into the Gaza Strip from Egypt. If this weren't the case, businessmen would not have been able to build so many resorts in under four months". Government sanctions In August 2010, Hamas authorities closed the water park for three days as a "warning" to the management against allowing men and women to mingle at parties. In early September 2010, Hamas authorities shut down the park again for 21 days, along with other resorts and a horse riding club. Criticism Residents of Gaza criticized the government for not backing investment in housing instead of water parks. One man, interviewed while relaxing at the Water Park, told a reporter that "If the money put into Crazy Water had been used to construct 10 buildings, 100 families could have been housed by now". Arson On 19 September 2010, the water park was burned down by a group of about 40 masked individuals in a move that was seen by human rights groups as part of the increasing Islamization of Gaza. Ala al-Araj, one of the owners and a former Hamas government minister, said