In Gaza, mud ovens and kerosene stoves replace electric and gas, due to the brutal Israeli siege

Mud ovens and kerosene stoves replace electric and gas

Saturday November 22, 2008 16:58 by Palestine News Network - PNN

Under siege there is one industry in Gaza that has seen an upturn in business over the past 18 days of complete closure. Crowds are gathering at kerosene stove repair shops.

The stoves and workshops were abandoned years ago, but are being pulled out as fuel imports to run the electrical plant or to cook remain banned. Others are building mud ovens in order to cook food and bake bread.

Families have spent days eating can goods after losing the ability to cook. Gas for the kitchen was never allowed in during this 18 day closure. When the Israelis lifted the ban on a small amount of fuel, only commercial grade diesel for the power plant was allowed, which provided 30 hours of electricity.

Some cooking gas has made it into the Strip through the tunnels between Egypt and Rafah, but the prices are exorbitant at nearly 400 NIS per barrel, and supplies are limited.

In western Gaza City’s Al Shati’ (Beach) Refugee Camp a kerosene stove repair shop is now crowded with customers when just weeks ago its owner sat inside only to pass the time.

Women and men who came to repair their stoves, which stopped working because of years of lack of use, said they have became their only hope to obtain food and baked bread for their children after the domestic gas was completely gone.

Umm Mohammed, a woman in her fifth decade, said that she had to search her home and among the stored and unfit furniture for the kerosene stove. She described an “overwhelming joy” filling her upon discovery among piles of forgotten items.

Umm Mohammed, the head of a family of nine, said that she and her family have been eating uncooked vegetables and food from cans for three days. Exhausted, she said that she cannot imagine how long this period without gas or electricity may last.

Among the wealthier it is possible to buy canisters of gas for cooking and heating, and some have generators for electricity. Some, who have money but cannot access the gas, pay high prices to buy from the few restaurants that remain open under siege.

For 18 days the Israeli administration has banned the entry of food and fuel to Gaza. Most bakeries and mills have stopped working, as has the power station. Fifty percent of the population has no electricity and is not on a generator. That same number is without water.

The bakeries who have managed to remain open have begun distributing rations of bread. At two kilograms, it is not enough for a three-person family.

Other people are using wood stoves or mud ovens to feed their children. The mud ovens were in use half a century ago, but in some communities are still used for special occasions. Because of the intensification of the blockade, large numbers of people especially those living in camps and villages, are constructing mud ovens in residential areas or on rooftops.

In the central Strip’s Al Nuseirat Refugee Camp a number of residents built a mud over from straw and mud which the community is sharing to bake bread, cook and heat water for bathing. The scene of children gathering wood along the roads to stoke fires has become familiar as the Israeli siege has pummeled the Gaza Strip backwards, well into the last century.

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