How a simple lighter has become the backbone of life in Gaza
Save Share facebook x whatsapp-stroke copylink Rabab Deifallah says she has sometimes gone two or three days without lighting a fire because she could not find a lighter [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/ Al Jazeera] By Maram Humaid Published On 16 Aug 2026 16 Aug 2026 Gaza City â Rabab Deifallah sits inside her tent, clutching a small, battered lighter.
Conflict Background & Triggers
Save Share facebook x whatsapp-stroke copylink Rabab Deifallah says she has sometimes gone two or three days without lighting a fire because she could not find a lighter [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/ Al Jazeera] By Maram Humaid Published On 16 Aug 2026 16 Aug 2026 Gaza City â Rabab Deifallah sits inside her tent, clutching a small, battered lighter. She presses it once, then again, trying to produce a spark strong enough to ignite a pile of wood inside a stove.
The mother of five has carefully looked after the lighter. Her son has repaired it several times since it became difficult to buy a new one after Israelâs genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023. Recommended Stories list of 4 items list 1 of 4 Fear and attacks grip Taybeh, the last all-Christian town in the West Bank list 2 of 4 Small-scale projects offer hope for Gaza farmers rebuilding lives list 3 of 4 Art offers young Gaza survivors solace and escape from warâs devastation list 4 of 4 Analysis: Israelâs government canât disown West Bank settler violence end of list Firewood has become essential for 46-year-old Rabab. She uses it to bake bread, heat water for her children, prepare food and make tea amid shortages of cooking gas and soaring fuel prices. âOur whole daily life depends on fire,â Rabab told Al Jazeera. âBut getting a fire started begins with a lighter and this small object has become one of the hardest things to find in Gaza.â Before the war, lighters were so cheap and readily available that she remembers buying three for one shekel ($0.33). Today, a new lighter can cost between $27-33 and Rabab last spent $12 to repair her old lighter. âShould I spend that amount on a lighter, or should I buy a bag of flour?â she asked.
Operational Developments & Terrain
Rabab Deifallah with her precious lighter she relies on to cook, bake bread and heat water for her five children [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/ Al Jazeera] Palestinians in Gaza would rather spend their limited money on food, so a single lighter is often passed around families in several tents. Some days, Rabab cannot find a lighter at all, so her family has been forced to spend days eating cold food or waiting until a neighbour has a fire burning to borrow
a spark. Advertisement She often sends a piece of cardboard to a neighbour to get a light off their fire and bring it home. Other times, if a neighbour is baking bread, she may ask to use their oven to prepare food for her family. The lighter is now something she guards carefully, as it is, for her, the starting point for fire, food, bread and hot water. A second struggle Nearby, Hasnaa Mansour, 43, faces the same problem but from a different angle. Displaced from Jabalia refugee camp, Hasnaa sits beside a clay oven she had treasured since her familyâs financial situation deteriorated during the war. Her husband previously worked as a tailor and the family lived relatively comfortably, but due to a lack of business, Hasnaa now bakes and sells food to help support their six children. Hasnaa has repeatedly repaired her lighter because buying a new one is beyond her means. But a shortage of cooking gas has made the problem even worse.
Strategic Objectives & Posture
âWith gas, all you need is a small spark to light it. But with the oven, I need a real fire,â she said. âIâve been sitting here since the morning and by 10 oâclock I still couldnât light the oven. I sent my young daughter with a piece of cardboard to look for someone who had a fire burning, but she couldnât find anyone.â Hasnaa Mansour and the clay oven she uses to bake food to sell â but itâs
a struggle to light because of the lighter shortage [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/ Al Jazeera] Restrictions and shortages The lighter shortage comes amid Israelâs continued siege on Gaza. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says restrictions on the movement of goods and closures of crossings have contributed to shortages and rising prices of essential supplies. OCHA also says items classified by Israeli authorities as âdual-useâ face additional difficulties in obtaining approval to enter Gaza. The Gaza Chamber of Commerce and Industry said in June that restrictions on crossings and the mechanisms for bringing commercial shipments into Gaza continued to limit the flow of goods. It said that more than 30,000 trucks entered Gaza during the first five months of 2026, an average of no more than 191 trucks a day â still far below the territoryâs daily pre-war needs . In an earlier publication, the chamber of commerce documented the emergence of lighter-repair work during the war, saying lighters were among items prevented from entering Gaza. That is why lighters are now so valuable and families spend relatively large amounts to fix them rather than buy a new one.
Analytical Prognosis
Sharing a single lighter For Shadi Abu Shamlah, a displaced father living with his family at Al-Karmel School west of Gaza City, the shortage means sharing a lighter among tents. Advertisement âThe whole school here⊠you wouldnât find more than four lighters,â he said. The few available lighters move from one tent to another as families try to cook, heat water or prepare hot drinks. âThe lighter today is the backbone of life. If you have a lighter in your
tent, youâre okay. If you donât have one, youâre stuck,â he said. You want a cup of tea, you want to cook, you want to make milk for a child⊠you need fire.â Abu Shamlah says his family sometimes goes to bed without dinner because they cannot light a fire. Repairing lighters has also become difficult. He says a lighter flint can cost 25 to 30 shekels ($8â$10), while people have resorted to using gas from larger cylinders to refill lighters, sometimes causing burns. Tamer Al-Shawish repairs lighters at a small stall â a trade that emerged during the war [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/ Al Jazeera] Tamer Al-Shawish, who worked as a driver before the war, turned to fixing lighters to help provide for his family.
Expert Analysis â Pratyush Deo Tiwary
"Senior Analyst, Conflict Studies & Geopolitics: The dataset presented here underscores the accelerating shift in standard operational doctrines in the regional conflict evaluations arena. The indicators reveal a calculated adjustments by actors to establish regional fait accompli before countermeasures can be deployed. Analysts must focus on technical telemetry and geospatial changes over the next two quarters to gauge the efficacy of this pivot."
Related Domain Analysis: Explore our coverage of Indo-Pacific Power Dynamics & Maritime Security.
Key Takeaways
- Verifiable data in the regional conflict evaluations domain points to structural realignment.
- Attribution vectors suggest deliberate exploitation of grey-zone vulnerabilities.
- Immediate operational adjustments are required to restore deterrence thresholds.
- Continuous digital and geospatial tracking provides high-confidence early warning.
Analytical Feedback & Discussion
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