Um Muhammad al-Masri, moved from the northern city of Beit Hanoun, never lets go of its asthma inhaler. She says she would die without that. The smoke fills her tent, where she directed a primitive oven fed by garbage.
“I have been prescribed medication, but I couldn’t afford it, so UNRWA [the UN agency for Palestine refugees] gave me this inhaler, ”she said UN news corresponding in the enclave.
“When I have the impression of suffocating, my children shout and rush to the hospital.”
Um Mohammed Al-Masri, moved by Beit Hanoun south of the strip, working in a clay oven to cook bread and cooking food for displaced people to support his family.
‘What should I do?’
The inhaler is supposed to last more than two weeks, but it must use it so often that it must obtain a new one every three days. “What should I do?” she asked.
“I have sons and girls to take care of. I cannot afford to stop using the oven. I am pregnant and I spend all day sit in front of the smoke.”
Aisha al-Ra’i already has several children and is pregnant again. She also has to keep her burning oven every day despite chronic disease.
His daughters help him collect plastic and cardboard remains for fuel early in the morning. Her injured children and her husband help her light up the fire.
“We pray that this ordeal is raised from us so that we can return to our lives,” she said in tears. ” We hope that the living conditions will improve and that people will understand our suffering. “”
Aisha al-ra’i, moved by Gaza City south of the band
‘We work because we have to eat’
“I work as a baker with my husband Abu Mohammed,” explains Um Muhammad Abu Zuaitter. “We have been working in this profession for a year and a half in this profession, and it has both made serious health problems. I have blood pressure, diabetes, disc herniated, and I need a inhaler.”
Um Mohammed says she suffered a stroke during the last Ramadan, but she cannot stop working.
“We work because we have to eat. We have young children in our tent who need to go to the distribution points every day. My sons were injured twice. We have two older daughters who have hearing loss. We pray to God to give us health.”
Dr. Khalil al-Daqran, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, says that the use of plastics in clay ovens causes the spread of pneumonia and asthma.
“While Israel continues to keep the passages closed and prevent the entry of fuel and gas cooking, the women of the Gaza strip used the use of waste and plastic to cook food and prepare bread in clay ovens.
“This led to the emission of toxic smoke and smoke, provoking the spread of respiratory diseases among the population, posing a serious risk of public health in the Gaza Strip.”
Hospitals unable to provide treatment
Dr. al-Daqran adds that Gaza hospitals are unable to provide health services to these patients due to the shortage of basic medicines and supplies.
“This situation requires urgent intervention by the international community and international organizations to put pressure on Israel to allow the entry of essential drugs, medical supplies, fuel and food.”
Gaza attends an worsening of the humanitarian crisis as fighting continues, forcing hundreds of thousands of people displaced to count on rudimentary means of survival.
The UN is ready to provide more essential help – but too many obstacles remain to allow necessary scale supplies.
