The Civil Defence Service in the Gaza Strip announced on Friday that hundreds of cases of respiratory diseases had been recorded in the Gaza Strip’s hospitals as a result of people lighting fires to prepare food due to the worsening cooking gas crisis in the Strip.

The Civil Defence conveyed in a statement received by Anadolu Agency: “Hundreds of cases of respiratory diseases have been recorded in hospitals as a result of citizens relying on lighting fires for several hours a day over the past six months.”

The statement added: “The Israeli occupation’s continued prevention of the entry of cooking gas into the Gaza Strip, especially to Gaza City and the northern Strip, threatens a new humanitarian and health crisis in light of the ongoing aggression against our people.”

“For many months, citizens have been relying on alternative and primitive means of lighting fires using wood and charcoal, which has caused many to suffer from respiratory diseases due to the use of plastic and chemical materials to ignite the fires, which emit toxic gases,” it noted.

The statement warned of: “The worsening cooking gas crisis and the danger posed to the lives of residents who have been suffering catastrophic conditions since the start of the Israeli aggression last October.”

It called on the international community to: “Pressure the occupation to allow the entry of cooking gas.”

Source: Middle East Monitor