War strains Gazans' survival skills

Escaped with just clothes on their backs
They escaped with just the clothes on their backs. On Monday, al-Dali's sister Salwa, 42, was stirring a pot of lentils and rice on a fire of paper, cardboard cartons and other debris. The refrigerator was empty, except for a few onions and tomatoes.

Salwa said she added extra salt to the cooking water in the belief that it would help rid it of germs. Many Gazans have taken to boiling drinking water too, since local water authorities warned of deteriorating quality last week. She said she tries to feed the kids as late in the day as possible so they don't go to bed hungry.

Al-Dali said the food will last until Tuesday, and he doesn't know where the next meal will come from. "I have no other business but to secure something to eat, water to drink and some wood and paper to warm them during the night," he said. "I feel ashamed of myself. I can do nothing for them."

In Zahra City, a complex of high-rises south of Gaza City, school teacher Jihan Sarsawi said she now washes in a bucket because running water is scarce — but only if there's no shelling.

"I'm afraid they'll shell the building and I'll be undressed, which would be really embarrassing, so last night I slept in my clothes, without bathing," she said.

Sarsawi also abstains from food and drink from sunrise to sunset every Monday and Thursday. "It lengthens out the food rations," she said.

Supply shipments disrupted
Israel has allowed some humanitarian aid convoys to enter, but the shipments and distribution are often disrupted by fighting. As many 88 percent of Gaza's residents now require food aid, and the three-hour lull in fighting that Israel allows for humanitarian aid to move around Gaza is not sufficient, said Helene Gayle, president of the international aid agency CARE.

Gaza economist Omar Shaban, who lives in the town of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, said his house gets six hours of electricity a day and running water twice a week, for about eight hours.

He has a small garden where he occasionally plays football with his sons, ages 10 and 16. Central Gaza has suffered less destruction than Gaza City, and Shaban said his family manages to get out of the house almost every day, for trips to the market or relatives in town. Most shops are closed, he said.

Supermarket owner Zaher Abdel Hadi in Gaza City said he's selling mostly on credit now because people are broke or can't get their money out of the bank because of a long-standing cash shortage.

"No one is leaving empty-handed," he said of his customers. "We have to be brothers in this war."

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