Israel's 34-day aggression on the Gaza Strip and the suffocating blockade imposed on it have returned people to the old primitive conditions of life, where reliance on charcoal and firewood to cook, fetch water from distant places, and travel in animal-drawn carts has become a common sight in the Strip.
In the absence of electricity, which has been cut off by Israeli decision since the beginning of the war, Gazans are forced to rely on firewood and cardboard for cooking, when they have foodstuffs, which have become very scarce, especially in the northern areas, due to the Israeli blockade that prevents the entry of food, medicine and fuel into the Gaza Strip and cuts off water and electricity for more than a month.
Due to the lack of water in Gaza, besieged residents are resorting to fetching water needed for daily use through buckets and plastic containers, if any, while a large segment across the Strip suffers from a scarcity of safe drinking water.
Transportation crisis
The sight of horse-drawn and donkey carts has become familiar in the Gaza Strip, as the residents of the Gaza Strip rely on them for their transportation to remote places in Gaza, and are forced to use them to transport the wounded and victims of the Israeli shelling to hospitals due to the lack of fuel and the targeting of ambulances transporting the victims, in addition to the difficulty of ambulances reaching some areas affected by the bombing.
The lack of fuel in Gaza has affected transportation services across the Strip, forcing thousands of citizens to travel from place to place on foot.
More recently, owners of horse-drawn carriages or donkeys have come to offer cheap transportation.
Displaced people leave northern Gaza on foot after intensified shelling and repeated Israeli warnings (AP)
A difficult situation in the south
Gaza's population is currently living in a catastrophic humanitarian and health situation, with 1.5 million of the total population of the Strip, which amounts to about 2.3 million, living under continuous bombardment for 34 days, amid the collapse of the health sector and severe shortages of potable water, food and medicines.
In the southern city of Rafah, which is teeming with displaced people who came from northern Gaza after orders from the Israeli occupation army, children wander the city's alleys and streets on a daily morning trip to search for cardboard paper that their families use to light fires to cook.
The spokesman for the Interior Ministry in the Strip, Iyad al-Bozm, announced on Tuesday that all bakeries in Gaza had stopped working after some were bombed by Israeli fighter jets, and others stopped serving due to the lack of fuel and flour, which threatens to cause a serious disaster.
These harsh conditions have pushed many Gazans to rely on canned food, if any, for their food, and people now eat one meal a day to rationalize the consumption of their remaining food stocks.
With fuel scarce, horse-drawn carriages or donkeys have become alternative means of transportation for Gazans to rely on (Reuters)
Famine in the North
The situation in Gaza City and the northern areas appears to be harsher, where canned food has run out and the majority of citizens no longer find enough food.
Anadolu Agency quoted a resident of Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip as saying that what his family has left of the food stock is one loaf of bread, which the family allocates only to children who cannot tolerate hunger.
"In two days we will go into famine, and we fear running out of water, which is already very scarce, later."
A long line of children waiting for water at one of the few stations in the Gaza Strip (French)
Water scarcity
Gazans face great difficulty transporting water from filling stations to homes, relying on transporting it using buckets, plastic containers and small tanks.
One person has to go to the water station several times a day to get enough water for his family's daily use, if water is available.
On the other hand, water transport vehicles are unable to reach citizens' homes due to the depletion of fuel available to them.
Anadolu Agency quoted a resident of the Gaza Strip from the city of Rafah as saying, "We call the water filling station, and she tells us, provide us with fuel so that we can transport water to you, and put it in tanks on the roofs of your homes."
"This is very difficult, as we do not have fuel and gas, and if there is, it is sold at very high prices, so we have to transport water manually, which is very stressful."
In parts of the Gaza Strip, street vendors travel in horse-drawn carts or donkeys to sell salt water and facilitate its access to citizens, also for small sums.
However, this water is not suitable for drinking and often causes health problems for those who have to drink it, such as diarrhea, gastroenteritis and acute colic, according to residents and doctors in the Gaza Strip.