In early April, Islam Dukhan, 32, was burning wood in a rudimentary stove he had built out of clay and scrap metal near his house in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city.
He had got the wood by chopping down a tree near his home. It was, he said, necessary to be able to cook for his two young children and his pregnant wife Shireen.
Shortly after 7 October, Israel prohibited the entry of cooking gas into Gaza. Limited supplies are now being allowed in, but at just 30 percent of the daily average from before 7 October, as per the UN, these fall far short of the needs of Gaza’s 2.3 million people.
As a result, wood has become the main source of fuel for cooking in Gaza.
Islam coped well for the first two months. He had – as many do in Gaza, accustomed as they are to periodic episodes of outsized Israeli violence – stored ample cooking gas in the house…..more