Residents in Gaza live under constant fear of rockets, bombardment, and a looming invasion while markets contend with rapidly rising prices that deplete savings and make daily life unbearable. The blockade restricts goods, salary cuts worsen poverty, and worn banknotes are sometimes refused by shopkeepers. Non-food essentials have become luxuries alongside food shortages. Cooking gas shortages and bans increased demand for wood, pushing people to dismantle furniture, cut garden trees, and scavenge rubble to burn for cooking and heating. Ready-cut wood often comes from olive trees or surviving trees. Collecting wood in border areas carries grave risks due to military-designated 'red zones.'
As we live in Gaza under the fear of rockets and Israeli bombardment, and with looming threats of an invasion by the Israeli government in full view of the world, in our markets, residents are fighting yet another war - one against soaring prices. It is a war that has drained pockets, exhausted people, and turned daily life into a burden no less cruel than the bombing.
Among the goods that have, tragically, become "war necessities" in Gaza is wood, which became increasingly important after cooking gas ran out and Israel banned its entry. With demand surging ever since Israel resumed its war after breaking the ceasefire, people began breaking apart their own wooden belongings or scavenging rubble for pieces to burn for cooking or heating water.
In my own family, we dismantled our wooden chairs and even cut the branches of the rose bushes we had planted in our garden, which once gave our home a touch of beauty. We were not alone. Our neighbors cut down all the olive trees their grandfather had planted. The soaring price of firewood forces us to burn anything made of wood before we even think
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