Israel’s continued siege is taking Gaza back to the Stone Age, reports Saleh Al-Naami

Armed with a sharp axe, Jihad Abu Hamam creeps about once a week into the woods on the eastern border of Al-Qarara village in the southern Gaza Strip. He cuts tree branches there and pulls them to his house two kilometres away. Jamila, his wife, uses these branches as kindling that she lights to cook their food each day, ever since the family’s store of gas for cooking ran out a month ago due to the Israeli decision to bar the entry of gas to the Gaza Strip.

“My wife and I agreed to light a fire once a day to cook on so that the firewood would last as long as possible,” Abu Hamam told Al-Ahram Weekly. Going to the woods once a week is a major risk, he admits, for they are close to Israeli army positions where soldiers do not hesitate to open fire and kill any Palestinian they see nearby. Many Palestinians have lost their lives after entering this wooded area.

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