GAZA: Standing on his street in Gaza, Alaa Habboub looked on in horror as flames engulfed his neighbors' home and screams rang out from the inferno that would claim 21 lives. The disaster last month, in a three-storey residence packed with containers of petrol, may have been less deadly if the Gaza Strip had a better equipped fire service, said the 21-year-old.

The densely crowded Palestinian enclave blockaded by the Zionist entity has a shortage of fire and rescue gear, and most of its trucks are decades old, its emergency services say. "If we had equipment and cranes, the fire would have been brought under control," said Habboub, recalling the fire that raged in Jabaliya, northern Gaza on Nov 17.

Since the Zionist entity imposed its Gaza blockade in 2007, when Islamist armed group Hamas took power there, it has heavily restricted the import of "dual-use" goods - anything with a potential military purpose. While cars can enter Gaza from the Zionist entity, fire trucks and cranes cannot, according to Gisha, a Zionist human rights group that examines the issue of dual-use materials.

Zionist officials confirmed to AFP that fire trucks are considered "dual-use" items, adding that one truck donated by Qatar entered Gaza in 2019 through Egypt. The Palestinian enclave currently has around 20 trucks in working order, according to its civil defense unit.  "We have a shortage of all equipment," said the head of Gaza's civil defense unit, Zuhair Shaheen. "Our best model of vehicle was made in 1994. Everything is old and worn out."

The lack of equipment "increases the number of casualties and damage to citizens' property", he told AFP. Apart from Qatar's donation, all the vehicles were imported before the Zionist blockade began. But just one of those is equipped with a working crane capable of reaching the rooftops in Gaza, which now has more tall buildings for a growing population estimated at 2.3 million people.

Shaheen argued it is unjust for the Zionist entity to categorize essential firefighting material as dual-use. "I can assure you, there is no military purpose," he said. "We are a humanitarian organization that protects and saves lives." The Zionist entity has fought four wars with Hamas since 2007 and, with a lack of specialist equipment, rescuers have struggled to save people from bombed-out buildings.

Mahmoud Basal, from the civil defense unit, said during the May 2021 war the rescuers lost vital time after multiple airstrikes in downtown Gaza City. "Unfortunately, we pulled martyrs out from under the rubble who were supposed to have been pulled out wounded," he said. He added this was "due to the lack of equipment to detect (people) under the rubble and no capacity".

The push for more rescue tools has been supported by Haaretz, the Zionist entity's leftwing daily newspaper. In an editorial days after the Jabaliya fire, the paper said officials in Gaza had "warned in the past about the poor condition of their vehicles and equipment". "These services urgently need oxygen, ladders, lock breakers and firefighter suits," Haaretz said. "(The Zionist entity) should send this equipment," it added, insisting the government "can't ignore its own responsibility for the lives of Gaza's residents".

There is no official contact between the Zionist entity and Hamas, meaning all coordination on humanitarian issues is done through intermediaries. The Palestinian Authority, based in the occupied West Bank, as well as Egypt and the United Nations, serve as key players. Shaheen said Gaza's rescue teams work "miracles through their own efforts and with meagre resources". Palestinian farmer Abdul Karim Al-Dabbah, 67, said he has repeatedly seen Zionist emergency response aircraft drop water on fires that break out on Zionist territory, near the Gaza border. "Why can't they help our civil defense service?" he asked. - AFP