In Gaza's tent camps, a cigarette lighter becomes a lifeline

GAZA/CAIRO, July 23 - In the sprawling tent camps of southern Gaza, a disposable cigarette lighter has become an unlikely luxury item, as essential to daily survival as food, water and fuel.

For displaced mother-of-four Nisreen Abu Saada, lighting a cooking fire can be a daily struggle in a territory where gas remains scarce and families rely on burning cardboard, plastic and scraps of wood to prepare meals.

"The tent is useless without a lighter," she said.

"There's no gas, and we're lighting fires 24 hours a day, which means a lighter is very essential in a tent," she told Reuters.

Before the war, three lighters cost one shekel ($0.33). Now, a single lighter costs 100 shekels ($32.55), something Abu Saada, 38, cannot afford. She was sitting beside a makeshift cooking area outside her tent in Khan Younis.

Nearly three years into the Gaza war, shortages of basic goods have transformed everyday objects into prized possessions. Lighters are shared among dozens of families, passed from tent to tent before breaking under constant use.

REPAIRING LIGHTERS BECOMES A BUSINESS

"When I want to light a fire, I wait for someone else to light one, or I go to where someone has lit a fire, take a piece of cardboard, light it, and bring it back," Abu Saada said.

The scarcity has created a niche trade for Hassan Abu Latifa, a displaced father of three who repairs broken plastic lighters at a small kiosk.

"Repairing lighters is not really a profession, but because of the suffering, people's need for them, and our need to work, we were compelled to take it up as one," said the 35-year-old, who worked as an agricultural engineer before the war.

Surrounded by boxes of damaged lighters and salvaged spare parts, Abu Latifa said soaring prices have forced families to repair lighters rather than replace them.

The war has devastated Gaza's economy. U.N. agencies say unemployment in Gaza exceeds 80%, while poverty has approached 100% after the conflict wiped out most economic activity and destroyed infrastructure across the enclave.

A U.S.-brokered ceasefire in October halted major fighting but failed to end attacks by Israel, which says it has targeted Hamas and other Gaza militants posing an imminent threat.

WITHOUT A LIGHTER, WORK STOPS, SAYS BAKER

Hamas blames Israeli attacks and border restrictions for the lack of progress to reach a broad agreement to end the conflict.

Aid levels remain disputed. The Hamas-run Gaza government media office says supplies entering Gaza have fallen far short of needs, while COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for humanitarian affairs in the Palestinian territories, says food deliveries since the ceasefire have exceeded World Food Programme requirements.

For Iftikhar al-Kafarna, a displaced mother-of-six who bakes bread in a traditional oven to earn money, the small tool has become critical to her livelihood.

"If there is a lighter, there is work. If there is no lighter, the work stops, and I can sit for three or four hours without work," she said. REUTERS