Breathless in Gaza: Health crisis deepens as families burn plastic for fuel

This article is published in association with United Nations.

Doctors in Gaza are warning of a surge in respiratory illnesses as families – cut off from basic supplies – burn plastic and cardboard to cook and keep warm. They say the outbreak will worsen unless life-saving medicines, fuel and food are allowed into the devastated territory.

Um Muhammad al-Masri, displaced from the northern town of Beit Hanoun, never lets go of her asthma inhaler. She says she would die without it. Smoke fills her tent, where she runs a primitive furnace fuelled by trash.

“I was prescribed medicine, but I couldn’t afford it, so UNRWA [the UN agency for Palestine refugees] gave me this inhaler,” she told UN News’s correspondent in the enclave.

“When I feel like I am suffocating, my children scream and rush me to the hospital.”

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Um Mohammed Al-Masri, displaced from Beit Hanoun to the south of the Strip, working at a clay oven to bake bread and cook food for displaced people to support her family.

‘What should I do?’

The inhaler is supposed to last for more than two weeks but she needs to use it so often that she must get a new one every three days. “What should I do?” she asks.

“I have sons and daughters to take care of. I can’t afford to stop using the oven. I’m pregnant and I spend the whole day sitting in front of the smoke.”

Aisha al-Ra’i already has several children and is pregnant again. She too has to keep her oven burning every day despite suffering from chronic illness.

Her daughters help her collect plastic and cardboard scraps for fuel early in the morning. Her children and her injured husband help her light the fire.

“We pray that this ordeal will be lifted from us so that we can return to our lives, she says tearfully. “We hope that living conditions will improve and that people will understand our suffering.”

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Aisha Al-Ra‘i, displaced from Gaza City to the south of the Strip

‘We work because we need to eat’

“I work as a baker with my husband Abu Mohammed,” says Um Muhammad Abu Zuaiter. “We have been working in this profession for a year and a half, and it has caused both of us serious health problems. I have blood pressure, diabetes, a herniated disc, and I need an inhaler.”

Um Mohammed says she suffered a stroke during the last Ramadan, but she can’t stop working.

“We work because we need to eat. We have young children in our tent who need to go every day to the aid distribution points. My sons were injured twice. We have two older daughters who have hearing loss. We pray to God to give us health.”

Dr. Khalil Al-Daqran, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, says that the use of plastics in clay kilns is causing the spread of pneumonia and asthma.

“As Israel continues to keep the crossings closed and prevent the entry of fuel and cooking gas, women in the Gaza Strip have resorted to using wastepaper and plastic to cook food and prepare bread in clay ovens.

“This has led to the emission of toxic smoke and fumes, causing the spread of respiratory diseases among the population, posing a serious public health risk in the Gaza Strip.”

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Hospitals unable to provide treatment

Dr Al-Daqran adds that hospitals in Gaza are unable to provide health services to these patients due to the shortage of medicines and basic medical supplies.

“This situation requires urgent intervention from the international community and international organizations to pressure Israel to allow the entry of essential medicines, medical supplies, fuel and food.”

Gaza is witnessing a worsening humanitarian crisis as fighting continues, forcing hundreds of thousands of displaced people to rely on rudimentary means of survival.

The UN stands ready to provide more essential aid – but too many obstacles remain to allow supplies in at the scale needed.