Gaza Fikri Abu Warda calmly bend over a pile of firewood, trying to ignite it for the third time this morning. He puts a piece of sponge under the wood, then ignites it with a small lighter that hardly works, so heavy smoke rises, so his eyes close and retreat to the back, while he has a dry cough that can hardly stop.
Abu Warda’s healthy life was difficult before the war, as he suffers from respiratory problems that require annual medical follow -up in a hospital In Hebron The southern West Bank, which is not currently impossible due to the war.
Abu Warda, the displaced from the north to the west Gaza City“I feel that my health has worsened since I started using firewood, but there is no other option.”
Wood is no longer a free or easy option. The price of one kilo reached 7 shekels (two dollars), an amount that exceeds the ability of many families in light of the siege and poverty.
“Only today, I needed firewood of 20 shekels (about 6 dollars) to cook a little pasta,” he said.
The Palestinian youth needs only 500 shekels ($ 147) per month to buy firewood, adding, “Who can save this amount in light of the closure of banks, the absence of liquidity, and the high commission (on the black market)?”
Less meals
The difficulties of using firewood in the young man, Dean Al -Helou, do not stop at his high price. Rather, the ignition has become suffering in itself. The urbanization, which was sold in half a shekel, is now sold with 50 shekels ($ 15), and is often damaged quickly.
And if it is disrupted a few days after its use, the sweet may be forced to borrow it from the neighbors.
And when the price of a kilo of wood, several months ago, was 3 shekels (0.9 dollars), the sweet was considered very high, and he did not imagine that the price today would reach 7 shekels (two dollars), a candidate for the increase.
“This is a budget that is difficult to provide in light of a war that disrupted work, closed banks, and raised the prices of goods and services crazy.”
With this reality, the number of daily meals is no longer fixed, as the family may be satisfied with one meal, and at best, two, he says, indicating at the same time that many families do not even find one meal that blocks its curses, and depends on what the charitable taca distributes, if available.
Overages without firewood
The lack of wood and its high prices, Ayman, who is the owner of a traditional clay oven in Gaza, resorted to difficult decisions, as she had to raise prices, without excluding that it was closed soon.
“We are in a real crisis, everyone is suffering, firewood has become rare, and its price is very high, we are raising prices to cover costs,” says the fiftieth lady.
“We had to lift the bread (cooking) fare, we used to take a shelter (0.3 dollars) on every 5 loaves, then shelter on every 4, and now we take two shekels for every 7 loaves, and there are ovens of others that take two shekels for 5 loaves.”
Even this amount has become insufficient to cover the costs, as it closed many ovens and stopped working, according to Ayman, who does not rule out that they will follow their example soon.
Wood runs out and the prices will ignite
Rizk Al -Sorsawi stands in his small shop for the sale of firewood, watching the eyes of people as they inspect the prices and then go.
Al -Sorsawi, who is displaced from a neighborhood Shuja’ia East of Gaza to Sand neighborhood (West): Only few are the ones who buy, the prices are not accessible to everyone.
The seller provides reasons that seem logical for high prices, saying, “There is no longer firewood Gaza Strip“.
He notes that the sector does not have forests, not even green spaces that are sufficient to supply the population with their daily needs of wood, and the remaining trees destroyed by war.
Then he adds that more than 75% of the sector’s area is prohibited for the population, which makes the collection of firewood a risk itself.
Also, the request is greater than the offer, and “people are cooking with firewood, and there is no alternative, so how can they live?”, He said.
Despite the high price currently, Al -Sorsawi expects that the prices will continue to rise, “the war is not over, and firewood has not been renewed.”
And not far from him, Mahmoud Wahdan, another seller who used to buy wood from street vendors, stands to offer him for sale in his small Sustain.
Wahdan says that the road to collect firewood is fraught with death, and every day the occupation kills and affects the firewood university who risk themselves to provide a livelihood for their children.
He adds that the destroyed houses, with the furniture they contain, have become the main source of firewood that is collected, due to the lack of forests or agricultural lands.
Bloodshed
Haitham Hassanein was not carrying a weapon, and he was not looking for a clash, he was looking for wood when he was shrapnel in an Israeli bomb.
Hassanein does not mention exactly the date of his injury, but it was almost a month ago, then he went to his home in the Al -Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza, who was displaced from him 3 months ago, to bring some firewood from him.
On his way back, a small running plane followed him, threw a bomb on him, and his fragments hit him and his back and legs were penetrated.
Today, after weeks of injury, Haitham is still unable to walk in a natural way, and needs two surgical operations, hospitals in Gaza are unable to perform the weak capabilities.