Another day in Gaza: How we cope in summer

In his second blog as a regular blogger, Mohammad Ismaeel, safeguarding and accountability officer for Islamic Relief Palestine, shares what summer is like in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Summer is always associated with fun activities like taking vacations, spending time by the sea or just relaxing at home.

However, it is not the same in my country.

In the Gaza Strip, the summer is not so pleasant. Recently, the temperature has reached around 40 degrees celsius. I know this can happen all around the world but in Gaza, we only have power supplies for 8 to 10 hours a day to keep us cool.

The good

There is always a debate on social media between people who love summer and people who prefer winter. Both parties share their own memes and posts, but no one will reach an agreement anytime soon.

In Gaza, summer lovers would argue that they have more hours in the day to spend with family and friends, go out to the sea, and relax after work and watch a movie. I can say that summer is vibrant and full of life in Gaza, especially by the seashore. There are lots of small businesses that sell corn, ice cream, other food and drinks, and many cafeterias at the sea entertaining guests.

I can see the seaside covered with decorations, drawings in beautiful colours, children playing on their bikes, people swimming and playing at the beach. This is a vibrant image of the summer in Gaza, yet, once the day is over and people are back in their homes, the hard times start.

The energy crisis

In the last decade, Gaza has been going through a chronic deficit in electricity supply. Gaza depends on 3 sources for its power supply, the first is a power plant located in the middle of the Gaza Strip. The second was a limited supply from power lines coming across the border from Egypt, which has been disconnected since 2017. The third, and the largest, source is the Israeli power lines. Even if the 3 sources are working at full capacity, they would still not be enough to generate a supply that meets the average demand of the Gaza Strip.

Why not?

The only power plant in the Gaza Strip was established after the Palestinian Authority began ruling in in the 1990s. However, this plant’s generators are fuel-based and depend on a constant supply to keep generating power. Gaza is not somewhere with a huge supply of available fuel. All of Gaza’s fuel is supplied through Israel.

In 2006, Israeli airplanes bombed the Gaza power plant after an Israeli soldier was abducted and taken into the Gaza Strip. I remember back then, we lived for a couple of days in darkness until neighbourhoods were connected again to the grid. The problem got worse years later after the de facto government took control in Gaza and a blockade was imposed on the movement of people and goods, including the fuel for the power plant.

The problem remained without any solution and the demand for power continued to grow without any supplies. Today, Gazans only have 8 hours of electricity and 16 hours of blackout. Tomorrow it will be the opposite, there will be 16 hours of electricity and 8 hours of blackouts. Our lives are synced to this ongoing circle. Families arrange their tasks to fit this schedule. During power availability, they start to run water pumps, bake their bread and do their cooking, run the washing machines, start elevators in the high buildings, and get a chance to charge their batteries for the coming 8 hours of darkness.

How we live

As the heat wave intensifies during this year’s summer, Gazans are facing extra challenges on top of the already dire situation.

Yes, everybody is affected, and everybody is feeling the effects of the heat wave. Sometimes, during daytime, you see only minimum movement on the streets as people just prefer to stay home in the shade. There aren’t many sources of ventilation or air conditioning, but it is still better than the direct heat from the sun in the outside. However, families with elderly persons, people with disabilities, newborn babies and those with chronic diseases are mostly affected because the very humid air can making breathing difficult even indoors.

I can’t think of how they adapt to these difficult situations, especially with the limited power supply.

Yet on the other hand, no one can deny the beauty of summer in Gaza; nice places at the beach, taking trips with friends, holding barbecues and playing cards. One of the best things about summer in Gaza is when relatives who are living and working abroad come to visit.

Due to how difficult travel is to and from Gaza, some families have not seen their sons, daughters or any relatives in years. The reunions of families who have been apart for 5, 10 years, or even longer, are full of emotions and memories.

I always see that Gazans are full of hope, despite the hard times that we live through and I always believe that the people of this tiny place can create miracles if they have the resources and are awarded their entitlements and their rights.

Islamic Relief has been supporting people in need in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 1997 and continue to be a lifeline to people in Gaza.

Please help us to continue offering this support. Donate now.

Mohammad is one of our regular bloggers. Each month, he’ll share stories from his work with Islamic Relief.