At a time temperature is getting lower and heating and electricity prices are going higher the Palestinians people are left with no other option to warm their homes up except for burning wood because it is the cheapest means which gives the most sufficient heating and warming results.
While people with good economic conditions seek to warm themselves up by purchasing heating devices poor people seek to do so by burning wood and always collect and purchase wood to burn it at their places of residences and homes.
Palestinians gather around burners to avoid the cold winter and the bad economic condition they live in which prevents them from obtaining the modern heating systems.
High demand high prices
Even the price of firewood went higher due to the high demand after it became an important product which is being sold in the market and a treasure looked for by all especially needy people who seek to obtain it from fields and groves and even from landfills.
Elderly Palestinian Khalid Abu Awad spends his time moving from one field to another owned by him in the village of Huwara near Nablus in the West Bank picking olive branches in one hand and his handsaw in the other hand to burn them later at his house.
Abu Awad told the PIC reporter that wood is the only source to warm his family up especially olive wood adding “the economic situation does not allow me to purchase more than three gas cylinders meaning I can’t afford to pay more than 15 NIS per day to use modern heating systems and wood is the only solution for this.”
Abu Awad pointed out that he trims his olive trees from time to time not because it is necessary to do so but because he wants to get some branches and woods to use them for heating noting “I and my family completely depend on burning wood as a means of heating throughout winter.”
Collecting wood
Palestinian citizen Abu Farouq as he prefers to be called noted that he collects wood from sides of the streets and even from landfills wondering “which is better to make my children spend winter feeling cold or to make them warm by burning the wood I collect from the surrounding area around my house?”
He added “Modern heating systems require extra expenses and it is impossible to save enough money to purchase them and thus to save my dignity and to keep my children warm I don’t hesitate even for one moment to collect wood and burn them to make my family warm.”
Palestinian citizen Nihad Jawabra from the town of Askar Alabald also in Nablus province finds himself with no option but to purchase wood from nearby carpenters and wood shops located on the sides of the city of Nablus adding “I purchase packets of woods from a carpenter at cheaper prices because the carpenter is a relative of mine and sometimes I go to shops located near the village of Quseen to purchase olive woods.”
Jawabra noted that burning wood as a means of warming up in winter is much cheaper than using modern heating systems noting “throughout the year I don’t spend more than 800 NIS in return for purchasing wood and in case I use modern heating devices I would need a lot of money especially with such a long winter.”
