‘Life covered in soot’: Gas shortage forces Gaza families to cook over wood
Al Jazeera
Cooking gas shortages in Gaza force families to burn wood and plastic, exposing mothers and children to dangerous smoke.
Gaza City, the Gaza Strip – Shortly before the call to sunset prayer, Islam Dardouna stretches her hand towards a pot hanging over a makeshift stove fashioned from a battered metal can, with scraps of paper and pieces of wood feeding the fire beneath it.
Then she pauses. She turns her face away from the rising tongues of smoke. Her face stained with a thin layer of soot and her clothes steeped in the lingering smell of fumes, she takes a deep breath but does not immediately lift the lid.
In her right hand, Dardouna holds an asthma inhaler as though it were a ladle or tongs. With her other hand, she tries to prepare food for her three children.
“I can no longer tolerate the fire at all,” the 34-year-old says in a strained voice as she raises the inhaler to her mouth.
“We heat water on it, cook on it … everything. It completely destroyed my health,” she said, pointing to her chest.
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