The use of molokhia mixed with nicotine has become common as street vendors try to get by.What was once a modest source of income before the war has become increasingly unstable because of Israeli restrictions on imports into Gaza.Israel has not allowed tobacco products into Gaza since the start of its war on the territory – which has so far killed at least 72,000 Palestinians – along with other restrictions on the entry of food and humanitarian aid into the enclave that led to famine last year.The restrictions were supposed to have been lifted under the current ceasefire, which began in October, but Israel has continued to limit what can enter Gaza.Abdul Karim Heles, 36, from Shujayea, now displaced in western Gaza City, has been selling tobacco for years.“We’ve been working in tobacco since before the war… and we continued during it,” he says. “I have no other profession.”But the real shift, he explains, is not only in trade conditions, but in customer behaviour.As cigarette prices skyrocket, people have been turning to unconventional substitutes, including herbs mixed with nicotine, most notably molokhia.The idea, he says, spread as an emergency workaround, part of a wider pattern of improvisation driven by scarcity. But he knows that this “solution” carries severe health ris …
