GAZA STRIP: Though Gazans normally use molokhia, or jute leaves, for soup, Abu Yahya Helles coats the crumbled, dried leaves in liquid nicotine and rolls them into cigarettes as a tobacco alternative.
In war-ravaged Gaza, where shortages are still acute, some are now smoking Helles’ home-made roll-ups as a cheaper option as cigarette prices have skyrocketed due to Israel’s blockade of many basic goods.
Helles knows his smokes are no replacement for the real thing, but with the price of a single cigarette soaring from 1 Israeli shekel to between 30 and 40 shekels (from 33 cents to $10-13), he has plenty of customers.
“This is in no way a substitute for cigarettes because at the end of the day, this is molokhia with nicotine added to it,” he told AFP while preparing a batch.
At his makeshift stall on a busy Gaza City street, he uses a syringe to inject liquid nicotine into a bag of dried jute leaves, using a large 1-kg bottle of the type often confiscated by the Israeli military from trucks entering Gaza.
He gives the small plastic bag a shake to infuse the leaves, then uses cigarette papers to roll the “tobacco.”
Although the street is lined with massive piles of broken concrete from apartment buildings destroyed during over two years of war in Gaza, it is busy.
Despite the October 2025 ceasefire, the local authorities say they have been unable to bring in the equipment they need to remove the rubble nor the materials they need to start rebuilding the tiny territory.
Nivin Samir, 53, says she smoked a pack a day for 20 years, but recently switched to molokhia cigarettes.
“They taste and smell awful. I smoke several a day, maybe to vent my anger, or to live out my fantasy of enjoying them with a cup of coffee,” said Samir, who has lived in a tent in the southern city of Khan Yunis since her home was razed in an air strike.
Toxic substances?
Another Gaza City cigarette seller called Mohammed Helles said people weren’t smoking molokhia out of choice.
“We’ve resorted to smoking dried molokhia leaves laced with nicotine as a substitute for imported cigarettes. We want cigarettes to be imported again so we can smoke normal tobacco,” he said.
But even the supply of molokhia is not guaranteed —whether it’s grown in Gaza or imported —because Israel controls all access points as well as about half of the territory.
According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), only 4.0 percent of Gaza’s agricultural land is accessible to Palestinians and not damaged by war.
Abu Muhammad Saqr, 47, told AFP he smoked to find solace in post-war Gaza.
“I’ve been smoking since I was 13. Now I smoke molokhia cigarettes and leaves. If they gave me poison, I’d smoke it. I have no life or future to save my health for.”
But Gaza City resident Walid Al-Naizi told AFP he was wary of such homemade products.
“These cigarettes are made from herbs such as molokhia, castor leaves, and other varieties and we don’t know whether they are toxic or not,” he said.
“Unknown liquid substances are added to them; we can’t tell if they are actually nicotine, poisons or even cockroach insecticide,” he added.
