Palestinian children with a wheelchair along a pathway in a makeshift camp near Yarmouk Stadium as Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip continues, 28 November 2024. [Getty]
Under the rain and clouds, journalist Abdullah Younis exited his tent early wearing heavy clothing. He placed a hand on his head to protect his hat from being blown away by the strong winds, hist other hand hugging a bag containing his personal laptop.
Younis, 37 years old, leapt between rainwater pools on the road, searching for any source of energy and internet to complete his work and deliver it on time. The residents of the Gaza Strip rely heavily on solar energy to get internet and charge their phones and laptops, since Israel cut off electricity completely with the start of its war on 7 October 2023.
Due to the rainy weather and lack of sunlight, winter poses a major problem for remote workers such as journalists, digital content creators, and e-service providers in private and public institutions, in addition to students trying out e-learning.
“I am writing a story about three women who were suffocated to death due to overcrowding in front of a bakery in the city of Deir al-Balah, while the people of Gaza are experiencing a real famine because Israel does not allow the entry of flour in sufficient quantities. My journalistic organisation asked me to submit my story to the editor today, so I am in a hurry to find any place with internet and a source of energy,” Younis told The New Arab.
He explained that he walked in the rain for two kilometres until he found an internet cafe relying on a gas-powered generator that provide a service to charge laptops, phones, and internet.
“I thanked God a lot when I found this place after I came across a number of places like it that closed their doors because they depended on solar energy,” he remarked.
In one of the shelter camps west of Deir al-Balah city in the central Gaza Strip, Zeina Salim, a student in the eleventh grade, was facing a major problem regarding her educational future due to the cloudy winter weather.
“I have to take an electronic maths test in two hours from now, but my phone is off, and I have not been able to charge it, and the internet service is also down,” she said to TNA.
Zeina used to charge her phone and get the internet from an internet cafe near the camp where she lives, but this internet cafe was off due to the lack of solar energy, in light of this winter weather.
Iyad Salim, Zeina’s father, who was displaced with his family from Gaza City, was searching hard for any solution to his daughter’s problem, so that she would avoid failing her test.
“I knocked on the doors of many tents around me looking for any small power bank device, and a neighbour helped us and gave me his device,” Zeina’s father told TNA.
Zeina was barely able to charge 20 percent of her phone’s battery, and then her father took her to a shelter that provided internet access, about 500 meters away, to take her educational test.
“Things went well for me, and I overcame the test and the winter together,” Zeina said, with a wide smile.
People in Gaza rely on internet cafes to charge their phones and personal laptops because they are unable to buy solar panels, the price of which has increased several times due to the war. The price of one solar panel now costs about $2,000, compared to no more than $300 before the war.
Yaqout Internet Cafe, east of Deir al-Balah, is one of the main internet cafes that provides laptop, phone and internet charging services to about 90 customers per hour.
Its owner, Ashraf Zaqout, told TNA that he is forced to close his doors in cloudy and rainy winter weather due to the lack of solar energy.
“Winter is a problem for us, as we cannot store energy in our large batteries because the solar panels are broken,” he added.
He explained that the cafe he owns provides its services to a wide range of remote business owners, such as journalists, content writers, employees of private institutions, and even bank employees who work in customer service remotely, university professors who give their university lectures via video applications, and students who need to follow these lectures.
Firas Hamdan, owner of the Pascal Alternative Energy Company in Gaza, told TNA, “All aspects of life here depend on solar energy because Israel has continued to cut off electricity to the Gaza Strip for more than 14 months.”
He noted that power generators that run on fuel or cooking gas are an alternative to solar energy in providing electricity during the winter, but he said that this alternative is “currently ineffective due to the lack of fuel and gas.”
Since the outbreak of the war, Israel has banned the entry of fuel such as petrol and diesel for commercial use, and allows small quantities of it to be passed to bakeries and hospitals to operate power generators.
As for cooking gas, Israel allows small quantities of it into the southern Gaza Strip, which are not enough for the population’s needs, as a family’s share of gas is about 7 kilograms every 45 days. However, in the northern Gaza Strip, Israel has not allowed cooking gas at all since the outbreak of the war, as the population there, estimated at 450,000 Palestinians, depends on wood for cooking and heating.
