Kufr Ein, West Bank: Palestinian women in the West Bank are resorting to the cheapest methods to produce staples like bread as financial curbs on Hamas government make it harder by the day for families to be fed.
At her home in the village of Kufr Ein, near Ramallah, Hind Ahmad, breaks bits of wood for a fire she is using to cook and bake bread in a makeshift clay oven in her yard.
It is not work the 52-year-old school principal is accustomed to, but having not been paid for more than two months, she cannot afford to make food in any other way.
"I have to use this primitive method to save money and feed my children," she said, her face flushing red and hot as she leans down to shove dough into the flaming oven.
"Every time I bake bread, my face turns as red as a tomato, not to mention being tired from inhaling the smoke."
Like 165,000 other Palestinians employed by the state, Ahmad, who as a senior teacher would normally make about 2,000 shekels (Dh1,656) a month, has not been paid since the Hamas-led government came to power in March.
Ahmad said she, her unemployed husband, two sons and a daughter had not eaten meat since March. She said she was relying on rice she had bought before and vegetables planted in her back yard.
Umm Mohammad, another teacher in Kufr Ein, said the crisis had forced her to resort to wood as a source of energy to feed her eight children, two of whom are university students.
"I never cooked on wood and I am allergic to smoke but I have to save money in every way possible, no matter how primitive it is. This is my responsibility," she said, stirring a pot of chickpeas on a stone-made stove to make hummus.
In recent weeks, Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza have resorted to selling gold coins and bracelets in the Arab world traditionally a person's last source of wealth, next to land to try to get together enough money to buy food.
Umm Mohammad said she was also thinking of selling her jewellery, although so far her parents and brothers were helping her make do with daily living expenses.
"I only want to see the kids graduate. Nothing more. In the village, we can live on land," she said.
