A child helping the camp committee to provide food in the camp for displaced families where Umm Mohammed is based. Photo: Khaled Al-Qershali

Umm Mohammed

Umm Mohammed Abd Al-Dayem, 42, is a mother of five and part of a seven-member family. She is from Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza City, and had to evacuate on the first day of the genocide. “My home was completely destroyed and I did not even have any chance to visit my neighborhood as it is under the Israeli military control within the yellow line,” Umm Mohammed says.

In her first month of enforced exile in Deir Al-Balah, Umm Mohammed’s son, Ahmed, used to collect firewood from the Al-Zawayda area. “Buying bread was difficult as bakeries were overcrowded with thousands of displaced civilians, so my son was searching for anything to light the fire so that I could bake some bread,” Umm Mohammed says.

When the number of people escaping to the south made finding firewood impossible, Omar, Umm Mohammed’s husband, built a clay oven for his wife to use for baking and cooking. “I was able to light the fire in the clay oven using plastics and torn clothes,” she explains.

With severe water shortages, Umm Mohammed discovered a new way to clean her cooking pots. One day, she was too sick to clean the pot she had used, The next day, she discovered that the ash had prevented soot and smoke from the fire from sticking to the metal surface of the pot. The residue on the exterior was less sticky and much easier to remove. Since then, Umm Mohammed always covers her cooking pots with ashes while cooking with them.

Over time, due to the continuing violence with no possibility of returning home, Umm Mohammed’s temporary living conditions have become more permanent. The clay oven eventually stopped functioning. “My husband couldn’t make another one as cement was non-existent in the Strip,” she explains; the cement was needed for the internal platform where the dough is placed for baking. Instead, Omar reused a large empty metal can that had previously contained cooking oil. He pierced several holes around its sides to allow airflow for the fire, then cut an opening in the front to insert wood, paper, and plastic for fuel. The family place pots directly over the top opening.

“My husband and I try to reuse everything we have for better purposes, trying to have a decent life,” Umm Mohammed continues. “I clean empty jam jars and supplement containers and use them as cups because the price of utensils is unimaginably high. When one of the water gallons was pierced, my husband cut it in half and I used the good part as a basin to wash the utensils.”

Abdulrahman setting a fire using cartons and plastics to make tea. Photo: Khaled Al-Qershali

Abdulrahman Shallah

Abdulrahman Shallah, 20, who lives with his injured father and sister, spent a year and a half in northern Gaza, searching for wood in destroyed buildings and uninhabited areas. “In northern Gaza, finding wood for cooking was not difficult; finding food was the hardest,” he says.

“While we were displaced in the Al-Shuja’iyya neighborhood, my father found a man selling a chicken in the market and had the chance to buy one,” he continues. But Abdulrahman and his family had no proper tools to chop wood, so they used chunks of concrete, which they found in the rubble of destroyed buildings.

“My brother went to chop some firewood so my mother could cook. We did not have a hammer, so he was throwing around 50 kilogram pieces of concrete to break up the wood. Suddenly, a small sharp piece of wood bounced back from the impact and injured my brother’s hand. Instead of enjoying that meal together, my father, brother, and I spent the day at the hospital.”

When Israeli occupiers attacked their home and destroyed it, killing Abdulrahman’s mother, the rest of the family evacuated to southern Gaza. They could not take any of their belongings so they had to reuse whatever they could find. “We used empty canned food containers to scoop water for showering and empty plastic bottles as pots for planting vegetables,” Abdulrahman says. As well as coping with their loss and sudden rupture, in the south finding firewood was impossible and they had to buy it. “One kilogram of wood, which cost around $1 before the genocide, will cost around $5 nowadays,” Abdulrahman explains. “I have to search for anything available to set the fire.”

A makeshift cooking and drying area in a tent. Photo: Khaled Al-Qershali

Ahmed Obeid

Ahmed Obeid, 26, who is a father of two children, lost his home and his building materials store in southern Gaza. “Before the genocide, I had every tool I needed to fix anything that broke,” Ahmed says. When Israeli forces destroyed his home and shop, he faced the struggles shared by so many in Gaza. He needed ropes to secure his tent. Even though he used to have a shop filled with such items, now he has none and prices have risen sharply. “One meter of rope, which used to cost around $0.30, costs me $1.30, so I have to use an alternative,” he explains.

Like others who have to improvise with whatever is left after continual bombardment, Ahmed reuses damaged materials. “I noticed that there were many broken charging cables so I started using them as ropes,” he explains. “I used these charging cables to secure the tarpaulins of my tent and to tie closed the plastic bags which contained some of my belongings.”

Like everyone in the Strip, Ahmed cannot afford to buy around four kilograms of wood every day, so he has to find an alternative. Burning plastics would release toxic materials that pose health risks, so Ahmed and other families like his struggle to find safe ways to cook. 

“I developed a simple fire setup using small fans like those in laptops, large empty metal cooking-oil cans, and low-power batteries or power banks. I created a place for fire that did not consume much wood,” Ahmed explains. “As everyone needs it, people come from everywhere across the Strip to buy the makeshift stove I created.”