Palestinians in Gaza Resort to Candles for Lighting Homes Amid Electricity Outages
(AWP) - More than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are living without electricity as the Israeli war enters its eleventh consecutive day, forcing many families to use candles for lighting their homes.
In al-Daraj neighbourhood in Gaza City, Lina Abu Kamil is using candles to light her home for her children, despite her fears of causing a fire during the night.
She also washes the family’s clothes by hand due to the lack of power to run the washing machine.
She said, "With the start of the war on Gaza and the aggression and continuous bombing, all of this has led to Gaza suffering from power outages, water outages, and the disruption of all necessities of life, including the Internet. This, of course, has isolated us from the whole world due to the difficulty of communication."
"Now we live without electricity; we live by candlelight so we can carry out our daily lives," she added.
Lina’s daughter, Hala, says that she is frightened by the darkness of the night in such difficult circumstances.
She said, "The nights are scary. The night is dark as it is, let alone when there is a war. There is no electricity or light to help us see what is around us. We are forced to use primitive means of life such as candles. But we are afraid to use candles because any movement can cause a fire. We saw many fires."
"We are afraid of the night coming at all," she added.
Hala’s little brother, Ibrahim, expressed his fear of war and the bombing that breaks out during the night. "I get afraid when the war starts, I am afraid of war when I am sleeping," he said.
Christos Christou, the international president of the aid group Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), described the situation in Gaza as "horrific and catastrophic."
He said via his X account (formerly Twitter), "Those hospitals and clinics that have not been evacuated are overwhelmed and are barely functioning. No electricity, no medical supplies. Surgeons in Al-Shifa hospital are now operating without painkillers."