“The Israeli occupation continues to prevent the entry of cooking gas and various types of fuel into the Gaza Strip for the seventh month, especially in Gaza City and the northern governorates, threatening to exacerbate the humanitarian and health crisis amid of the ongoing aggression,” said the head of the Gaza Media Office, Salama Marouf.
He added: “Palestinians in Gaza rely on primitive alternative means, lighting fires with wood, charcoal and leftover construction debris, resulting in hundreds of people being affected by respiratory illnesses due to the use of plastic and chemical lighting materials. fires, emitting toxic gases. “
“Hundreds of new cases of various respiratory diseases have been recorded due to the fact that in recent months fires were lit with the aforementioned methods for long hours a day,” Marouf also stated.
He warned that this “foreshadows the growing severity of this crisis and the susceptibility of citizens to lung cancer and respiratory diseases due to the toxic gases emitted by these means.”
He called on the international community to “put pressure on the (Israeli) occupation to allow the entry of cooking gas.”
Since the beginning of the Israeli war in the Strip, Israel has been preventing cooking gas from entering areas of northern Gaza, while allowing limited quantities into areas of southern Gaza.
Ignoring the interim ruling of the International Court of Justice, Israel continues its attack on the Gaza Strip, where at least 34,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 76,900 injured since October 1. 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.
The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
However, hostilities have continued unabated and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.