Molokhia cigarettes: Gaza’s toxic alternative to tobacco

Gaza City, the Gaza Strip – Next to a waste dump, a small informal market stretches along a dusty road in central Gaza City. Makeshift stalls line both sides, where vendors display large plastic bags of dried molokhia leaves alongside a few remaining packs of tobacco.

Molokhia - the leaves of the jute mallow plant - is typically used to make a thick stew. But at the stalls here it is used to make a "molokhia cigarette".

The seller takes a handful of dried leaves, crushes them between his fingers, and adds a small drop of liquid nicotine. The mixture is then rolled into thin paper and handed over.

The 27-year-old, who has been smoking for six years, describes how his habits were forcibly reshaped by war and soaring prices.

What was once a routine personal habit, Alaa says, is now another example of the high cost of living that now defines daily life in Gaza, with extreme inflation brought on by Israel's genocidal war now rampant.

“A [tobacco] cigarette now costs 100 shekels ($34)… it’s insane,” he says, exhaling smoke mixed with the distinct smell of molokhia.

“It doesn’t even resemble tobacco anymore… but it’s something we use because there are no other options.”

As a father of two, unemployed since losing his job as a carpenter at the start of the war, each pack of cigarettes has become an unaffordable burden.