2023-12-11 03:52:46
In a Gazan workshop, Ibrahim Shouman brings old brass stoves back to life, and gives hope to displaced people deprived of gas or wood for cooking. A pinch of pliers, a new wick, a refill of homemade fuel and a spray of fire crackles, like a miracle.
“People have gone back to the old days and are bringing their brass camping stoves to get them repaired because there is no gas or fuel available,” he told an AFP journalist at Rafah, at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped by the war declared by Israel on Hamas after the Islamist movement’s bloody attack on Israeli soil on October 7 left everything behind when the bombings began in the north.
They hoped to be safer in the south, along the border with Egypt, but the Israeli army gradually expanded its strikes into the small coastal territory, then launched a ground operation on October 27.
Today, the entire Gaza Strip is shelled and the scene of fierce ground fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas commandos. The humanitarian situation everywhere is catastrophic.
Fight for survival
“People looked for firewood everywhere, but there is no more. They would have to buy it more expensively and they don’t have much money left,” explains Ibrahim Shouman, whose customers follow the precise gestures when he rubs, twists, adjusts the parts, a piston, the burner, the reserve.
Every day is in fact a struggle for survival, collecting food and warm clothing. A power outlet, kindling or gas are worth gold while the displaced have been plunged into extreme poverty.
This is why, in Rafah, those of them who had inherited them from their parents, and their parents before them, bring their old brass stoves, dented, covered in dust.
This is the case of Adnan Abu al-Aish. “These camping stoves were used 100 years ago, which shows how far we have regressed,” sighs the man who, at 55, is looking for something to cook his meager rations of semolina or vegetables.
In the absence of kerosene, Ibrahim Shouman fuels the stoves with a homemade mixture of motor oil and fuel oil.
“There is diesel,” explains Adnan Abu al-Aish, “but it is very difficult to find it. A liter costs around 30-35 shekels”, the equivalent of 7.5 to 8.7 euros, “and you have to spend a whole day looking for it.” “We have to make do. There isn’t even any firewood, people are looking for pieces of cardboard thrown on the ground.”
Mohamed al-Malahi, too, brought his stove, which he says belonged to his great-great-grandfather. “What can we do? We need it to make a fire and cook.”
In the circumstances, “they do the job,” philosopher Ibrahim Shouman.
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