The crisis due to the lack of cooking gas in Gaza Strip is threatening Gazan's daily life, especially during the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha holiday.
Palestinian officials said that the need for cooking gas during winter in Gaza Strip is increasing, including in households, bakeries, hospitals, restaurants and farms. The crisis of cooking gas has been intensified after Israel refused to allow last week more amounts of cooking gas into the strip.
Figures released by the association of gas station owners said that five out of ten houses in Gaza suffer from a lack of cooking gas, where
several bakeries closed down on the weekend. The bakery owners said they had consumed what were saved of the cooking gas and they were not able to operate on.
The Palestinian health ministry said that it has only received one third of its share of the cooking gas, and some hospitals are planning to close laundry and cooking departments in case the shortage goes on, which might affect the sanitation of these hospitals.
Palestinian farmers also expressed concerns that what happened last November would be repeated, when they could not get enough cooking gas to warm chicken farms and hence were forced to slaughter 400,000 chickens.
Last year, the lack of cooking gas led to the closure of several bakeries, forcing owners of some restaurants to use diesel and other types of primitive fuels for cooking. As the crisis is back again now, Gaza residents have started to use again woods and diesel instead of cooking gas.
Om Ahmed al-Sawada, a 40-year-old woman from Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, said that the use of diesel and woods "is awful because they
turn the walls of my kitchen into black, in addition to the suffocating smoke and smell."
Om Ahmed said she got back again to use the old Kerosene stove after she felt that there would be a severe crisis of cooking gas, adding "I hope that we will not get back to the old days."
The International Oxfam organization for humanitarian aid warned in a press statement sent to reporters of the danger of this crisis and its influence on the Gaza Strip population, calling on Israel to immediately allow the proper amount of gas in.
"People in the Gaza Strip can't celebrate the Eid al-Adha without enough quantities of cooking gas," Oxfam director general Germy Hopes said, adding this was a collective punishment which must be stopped immediately.
Hopes said the Gazans have the right to cook hot meals, to buy bread and get heating, especially during the winter time. He called on Israel to open all the closed border crossings to allow in more gas for daily use.
The mechanism of cooking gas delivery is controlled strictly according to importance and urgency, with the need of hospitals and bakeries the highest priority, and the needs of individual residents become secondary.
The association of gas station owners said that the crisis began several months ago, when the Israeli authorities changed to convey gas
through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the far south of the Gaza Strip, instead of through the Nahal Uz depot east of Gaza City, for the so-called "security reasons."
Palestinian officials said that Kerem Shalom crossing did not have enough technical mechanism of conveying gas, which required more time to be improved.
The association of gas station owners said the 1.5 million of Gaza population need 4,500 tons of cooking gas each month in summer and 6,000 tons in winter.
During September, Gaza Strip only received 2,500 tons of cooking gas, and during October the amount declined to 1,700 tons. Since Nov. 23, no cooking gas has been allowed into the Gaza Strip.
Efforts which tried to bring cooking gas from Egypt through smuggling tunnels failed, but smugglers managed to bring blue balloons filled with cooking gas from Egypt into the Gaza Strip. However, people with low incomes still can not afford to buy such gas balloons.