CAIRO: Desperate Palestinians at a garbage dump in a Gaza neighborhood dug with their bare hands for plastic items to burn to keep warm in the cold and damp winter in the enclave, battered by two years of the Israel-Hamas war.
The scene in the Muwasi area of Khan Younis starkly contrasted with the vision of the territory projected to the world.
In Gaza, months into the truce, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still languish in displacement camps, sheltering in tents and war-ravaged buildings, unable to protect themselves from the temperatures dropping below 10 degrees Celsius at night.
Despite the ceasefire, there are still recurring deadly strikes in Gaza. Israeli tank shelling on Thursday killed four Palestinians east of Gaza City, according to Mohamed Abu Selmiya, director of the Shifa Hospital, where the bodies were taken.
While aid flows into Gaza have significantly increased since the ceasefire, residents say fuel and firewood are in short supply.
Prices are exorbitant, and searching for firewood is dangerous.
For Sanaa Salah, who lives in a tent with her husband and six kids, starting a fire is a critical daily chore for cooking and staying warm.
Her family barely has enough clothes to keep them warm. She said the family cannot afford to buy firewood or gas, and that they are aware of the dangers of burning plastic but have no other choice.
“Life is very hard,” she said as her family members threw plastic and paper into a fire to keep it burning.
“We cannot even have a cup of tea.”
“This is our life,” she said. “We do not sleep at night from the cold.”
Firewood is just too expensive, said Aziz Akel.
His family has no income, and they can’t pay the 7 or 8 shekels (about $2.5) it would cost.
“My house is gone, and my kids were wounded,” he said.
His daughter, Lina Akel, said he leaves the family’s tent early each morning to look for plastic in the garbage to burn — “the basics of life.”
