GAZA, (PIC)
Palestinian displaced woman, Iman Asaliya, spends long hours every day sitting beside a primitive fire stove preparing food for her children, amid a severe cooking gas crisis and the lack of safe alternatives caused by the ongoing Israeli siege and restrictions imposed on the Gaza Strip.
Iman uses plastic and cardboard waste to light fires inside her tent, which is pitched along a roadside in Gaza City.
The toxic fumes released from the burning waste force her to inhale harmful gases that have caused worsening health problems from which she has not yet recovered.
Iman is one of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have been forced to return to using firewood and waste materials for cooking as the cooking gas crisis deepened following the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7, 2023.
The crisis has been aggravated by strict restrictions at border crossings and Israel’s ban on the entry of wood used as an alternative fuel source.
The situation worsened further after the Israeli-American war on Iran that began on February 28, as Israel imposed additional restrictions on crossings, reducing the already limited gas supplies by half, according to local sources.
Since the ceasefire agreement came into effect on October 10, 2025, Israel has allowed between five and nine gas trucks to enter Gaza daily.
At times, the number dropped to only four trucks, in addition to intermittent border closures during which no gas entered the Strip.
Ismail al-Thawabta, Director General of Gaza’s Government Media Office, told Anadolu Agency that the quantities cover only 30 percent of Gaza’s daily needs, adding that the ceasefire agreement had stipulated the daily entry of 50 fuel and cooking gas trucks.
“Fire consumed my health”
Inside her cramped tent, home to nine family members including an elderly disabled man, Iman Asaliya gathers cardboard and plastic scraps from garbage piles to light fires after firewood became too expensive for her to afford.
“Getting a gas cylinder has become an impossible dream. Lighting fires has become part of my daily life. The fire has consumed my health,” she told Anadolu Agency.
Struggling to breathe through thick smoke, she added, “My children need food and milk, and I have to keep the fire burning day and night, consequently I developed respiratory problems.”
Iman explained that she has suffered repeated suffocation and loss of consciousness from inhaling toxic fumes, yet insists there is “no other option” as long as the crisis continues.
She warned that conditions may become even harsher with the arrival of summer and rising temperatures inside the tents.
Long waits for limited supplies
In a scene reflecting the scale of the crisis, Abu Fadi, stood outside a gas distribution point celebrating his receipt of a half-filled gas cylinder after waiting more than two months.
“The amount we received will only last a few days,” he told Anadolu Agency. “After that, we will go back to lighting fires again, so we only use gas when absolutely necessary.”
He explained that lighting fires has itself become a daily struggle due to the scarcity of materials used for burning, especially after wood and plastic supplies inside Gaza were depleted and Israel prevented the entry of wood since the start of the war.
The limited quantities entering Gaza are distributed through a computerized system that forces residents to endure long waits for only a few kilograms of gas, according to Gaza’s General Petroleum Authority.
In previous statements, the authority warned that the ongoing crisis represents a “certain catastrophe” that threatens both food and health security while disrupting essential humanitarian services.
Catastrophic crisis
For his part, Thawabta described the cooking gas crisis as having reached “catastrophic and unprecedented” levels due to Israeli reduction policies.
He said Gaza had already been suffering from a deficit estimated at around 70 percent of its needs during the ceasefire period before the crisis worsened further with the continued reduction and occasional complete suspension of supplies.
Thawabta added that Israel is using gas as “a tool of pressure and collective punishment” against Palestinians, directly affecting the lives of residents and displaced families while worsening the suffering of hospitals, bakeries, and community kitchens.
He stressed that Israel had fulfilled less than 30 percent of the ceasefire agreement provisions related to fuel and cooking gas, stressing that these shipments were the most frequently delayed and obstructed.
As of April 14, Gaza’s Government Media Office documented 2,400 Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement, including killings, arrests, siege measures, and starvation policies.
The office stated that Israel allowed the entry of only 37 percent of the aid and fuel quantities stipulated in the agreement. Gaza received 41,714 trucks out of the agreed 110,400 trucks, with a daily average of 227 trucks, despite the agreement requiring the daily entry of 600 aid trucks and 50 fuel and gas trucks.
Since the outbreak of the war on Gaza in October 2023, the Israeli aggression has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians and injured over 172,000 others, in addition to causing widespread destruction to nearly 90 percent of the Strip’s infrastructure.
