By Hosni Nadim
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - An elderly Palestinian, Abu Muhammad Hassan, goes on an arduous and dangerous mission in search of firewood from under the rubble of homes destroyed by the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
His 7-year-old granddaughter, Maryam, accompanies him on his daily search trip in the northern Gaza Strip to collect tree branches from doors and windows, and other remnants of destroyed houses.
“I go out every morning to collect wood, as we do not have fuel or gas for heating or preparing food. The conditions here are very difficult,” Hassan told Anadolu.
He carries the wood and large branches into the courtyard of his house, while his granddaughter drags with her small hands as many branches as she can to relieve her elderly grandfather.
Residents of the strip, especially Gaza City and the North Governorate, spend a long time every day collecting wood, firewood, and cardboard, to use them for fire to prepare food, heat water, and for daily uses.
“Do you see the suffering we are experiencing in northern Gaza? We collect firewood from everywhere, even the destroyed and dangerous places,” said Hassan.
“We also cut some branches from trees planted in public streets, and then we search for food such as lentils, mallow, and beans,” he added.
Since Israel waged its ruthless war on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, the residents of the enclave have suffered greatly from fuel and cooking gas shortages.
After pressure from the UN and the international community, Israel allowed very limited humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah land crossing in the southern Gaza Strip.
“There is no gas, no water, no wheat flour, even rice as a substitute for flour does not exist,” says the elderly man.
“We have not received any aid here in the northern Gaza Strip,” he added.
“The conditions are difficult beyond any imagination, and we are trying to adapt to this life, but this is unreasonable,” Hassan added.
Before the war, only some families used to buy firewood for heating in the winter. However, the new conditions turned the lives of all Palestinians in the strip into a primitive one.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack. The ensuing Israeli attack had killed at least 28,663 and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
Less than 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel is accused of genocide in the Gaza Strip, and South Africa has filed a case in the International Court of Justice. In January, an interim ruling ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that civilians in Gaza receive humanitarian assistance.
*Writing by Ikram Kouachi in Ankara