Fatima Al-Saayda’s face flushes red as she stokes the firewood in her clay oven, preparing a modest meal for her family and the families of her two married sons. Smoke fills the air, forcing tears from her eyes, especially as she resorts to burning plastic and cardboard due to the scarcity of firewood.
Exhaustion is etched onto the 53-year-old mother of five and grandmother of five more. She spends hours tending the fire, cooking from mid-afternoon until just before sunset, despite suffering from high blood pressure and respiratory issues. But physical strain is only part of the burden; her mind remains preoccupied with the daily struggle of securing food for both the pre-dawn and evening meals.
Since the first day of Ramadan, Fatima has had no choice but to cook this way. Her cooking gas ran out, and she had been scheduled to receive a refilled gas cylinder on the second day of the holy month. That same day, however, Israel shut down all border crossings with Gaza, a closure that remains in effect.
“I was waiting for my turn, but now there is no gas, not for us or my sons’ families,” she told The New Arab. Like thousands of other Gazans, her family must adhere to government-designated collection dates for cooking gas. Their turn was early in Ramadan. They never got it.
“This is a catastrophe on every level. There are no words to describe it… Closing the crossings means stopping life itself”
She called to her grandson, asking him to bring more cardboard to keep the fire going. Inside the oven, some flatbreads bake, while a pot of lentil stew simmers atop the clay structure.
“Closing the crossings has disrupted every part of our daily lives,” she explained. The cooking gas shortage, she added, “is just the beginning.” The blockade has also emptied Gaza’s markets of essential foods, meat, poultry, fish, and even basic produce.
Fatima describes how the Israeli restrictions have made it nearly impossible to obtain medicine. During the 42-day ceasefire that ended on the first day of Ramadan, she had tried to refill her prescriptions. But after Israel reimposed the blockade, most medicines stopped coming in, leaving both government-run and charitable health organisations unable to help her.
“This is a catastrophe on every level. There are no words to describe it,” she said. “Every day, we suffer. I can’t even find the simplest ingredients to cook. I’m back to feeding my family from canned goods, beans, chickpeas, whatever is left, after months of relying on whatever fresh food was still entering Gaza.”
For her, and countless others, the siege is more than just an economic or logistical hardship. It is an assault on the very essence of daily life.
“Closing the crossings means stopping life itself,” she stated. “The occupation knows this. They know exactly what they are doing to us. We are being forced back into a primitive existence, lighting fires for cooking, scrambling to find food, struggling for water.”
Like many in Gaza, Fatima had hoped the ceasefire would last through Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr.
“We just wanted to feel human again,” she said, adding that she had only returned to her home days before the start of Ramadan, after months of displacement since December.
“I came back hoping for a different life,” she said. “But the occupation wants nothing but suffering for us.”
‘An unbearable nightmare’
The fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel collapsed on March 1. Since then, Israel has not only sealed all crossings into Gaza, preventing humanitarian aid from reaching the enclave’s 2.3 million residents, but has also intensified restrictions on basic services.
In recent days, Israeli authorities cut power to Gaza’s two largest desalination plants in Deir al-Balah, the only ones that had been reconnected to the grid in recent months. Electricity has been entirely unavailable in Gaza since October. Now, Israeli officials have also signalled their intent to shut off water supplies to parts of northern and southern Gaza.
“We hoped for relief,” Fatima said. “Instead, we were given more suffering.”
For Iyad Mohammed and his extended family of 28, life has turned into what he calls “an unbearable nightmare.” They have been without water for three days, forced to buy it at soaring prices, and transported by tankers that struggle to operate due to fuel shortages.
His family, his four married sons, their wives, and nine grandchildren, returned to the charred remains of their home in Khan Younis two months ago after being displaced twice: first to Rafah before Israel’s ground assault in May, then to Al-Mawasi. Even before the latest restrictions, water was scarce. Now, they find themselves in an even more desperate situation.
“We have nine grandchildren, the oldest just eight years old, and they desperately need water, for drinking, cleaning, bathing, even cooking,” Iyad said.
“Now, we’re paying $45 for a 1,000-litre tank that barely lasts two days. What happens if this continues? We’ll go thirsty, be unable to cook, and get sick because we can’t keep clean. The water crisis alone is a catastrophe.”
The family is already struggling to secure food. After losing his bicycle repair shop in an airstrike, Iyad has been out of work.
“It’s getting harder to find vegetables or frozen food,” he said. “Either the markets have run out, or prices have skyrocketed. We’re back to eating canned food, and we’re terrified of reaching the point of starvation again.”
The crisis escalated after Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen confirmed that electricity had been cut to a key desalination plant, shutting it down.
“We have already seen the electricity cut affecting the desalination plant, leading to its shutdown,” the Israeli minister said. “Halting electricity, stopping aid, and other measures will increase pressure on Hamas.”
Running out of essential supplies
For many in Gaza, the impact is devastating. Large sections of the population have been without water for days, while in other areas, supplies have dwindled dramatically, especially in neighbourhoods entirely dependent on water piped in from Israel.
The municipality of Gaza City has warned that the situation could spiral further out of control. Spokesman Asem Al-Nabeeh cautioned that if Israel follows through with its plan to fully cut off water supplies, it will trigger “severe thirst” across the city.
“The water that comes from Israel accounts for more than two-thirds of Gaza’s supply,” he said.
Even before this latest measure, the municipality was only able to provide water to 40 percent of the city.
“Seventy five percent of our wells have been damaged, either completely or partially, while the desalination plant has been offline since the start of the war,” he said. “Right now, only 30 wells are operational, covering just 30 percent of the city’s needs.”
With crossings closed and fuel supplies blocked, the municipality has no alternatives.
“The continued closure of the crossings directly affects our ability to provide water, operate wastewater treatment plants, and remove trash from the streets,” Asem said.
More than 170,000 tons of waste have already piled up across the city, and Israel has prevented municipal workers from reaching Gaza’s main landfill.
“If this continues, we are facing a major health disaster,” he warned.
Beyond water, Gaza residents are struggling with shortages of essential goods. With all crossings shut, fuel prices have soared. Cooking gas now costs more than $20 per kilogram, diesel has reached $12 per litre, and gasoline, when available, exceeds $45 per litre. Most vegetables and frozen meats have disappeared from markets, while the few available items are selling at many times their usual price.
The blockade is also forcing bakeries to shut down. Five have already ceased operations, including the only one in Bureij refugee camp and four in Khan Younis. That leaves just 13 bakeries running across the entire territory, most relying on emergency aid from the World Food Programme.
“People stand in line for hours just to get a bag of bread,” said Abdel Nasser Al-Ajrami, head of the Bakery Owners Association. “Fights break out because of the overcrowding. We had hoped to increase the number of bakeries to ease the crisis. Instead, the closure of the crossings has made things worse.”
Abdel warned that without immediate international intervention, the remaining bakeries could shut down within two weeks.
“People are already struggling to find food,” he said. “If we go back to square one, to a situation where people search for bread and can’t find it, the humanitarian situation will be catastrophic.”
As the crisis deepens, residents like Iyad Mohammed fear the worst.
“We are running out of everything,” he said. “Water, food, fuel. How are we supposed to survive?”
Mohamed Solaimane is a Gaza-based journalist with bylines in regional and international outlets, focusing on humanitarian and environmental issues
This piece is published in collaboration with Egab
