Palestinians in Gaza scavenge trash for things to burn to cook meals, in photos

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza make the difficult choice every day between digging into garbage dumps for combustible materials to help cook their meals or crowding around the territory’s scarce charity kitchens.

The Kahlout family has tasked their 12-year-old son, Omar, with walking daily to a nearby dump to collect plastic and other material they can use as fuel. He digs with his bare hands and fills a worn-out sack, then carries it back to the tent where he lives with his family of eight.

They live close to the dump. Rats swarm their tent. This is life for many of Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians who still languish in displacement camps and war-ravaged buildings, 10 months after a fragile ceasefire was reached between Israel and the Hamas militant group.

Families expressed doubt on the progress of talks that aim to end the war. “The truce is only in the media,” said Omar’s father, Adam. He said the family survives on food from humanitarian aid packages and charity kitchens.

And yet Palestinians say the food at the kitchens is not enough. Each family is allowed one piece of fish with rice. May people leave with their pots empty, even as Israel’s government has said it is allowing enough food into the territory that remains largely cut off from the world.

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This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.