Five Ways Palestinians in Gaza Taught Resilience Amidst Genocide

Over the last 16 months, Israel deliberately denied daily essentials, which drove the Palestinians to innovate genius hacks with a bare minimum of supplies, leaving the masses astounded with their unwavering resilience and faith in God.
These are some of their groundbreaking innovations:
1. Charging Devices Without Electricity
Israel heavily reduced power supply into Gaza, and a majority of the 1.9 million displaced Palestinians did not have access to generators or UPS machines. Gazans came up with the idea of connecting routers to small batteries to gain access to the internet, which connected them to their loved ones and the rest of the world.
Palestinians also used solar panels by connecting them with a converter to charge a large battery, allowing for the charging of several phones.
E-SIMS were also used to connect to the internet. They are electronic versions of normal SIM cards that allow for accessibility to the outside world, as Israel had fully destroyed Gaza’s cellular network.
2. Using and Producing Charcoal Instead of Gas
Through the genocide, Gazans also learned to adapt their cooking methods due to the acute shortage of fuel and gas caused by the Israeli blockade. They transformed everyday pots to work with coal by inventing coal pots, which also worked as ovens.
A number of Palestinian workers in Khan Younis were able to produce charcoal from tree branches in a quest to provide warmth to families living in flimsy makeshift tents.
AbdulAal, a 55-year-old father, along with his three sons and ten workers, took up the perilous task of collecting tree branches from Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah, as well as the refugee camps of al-Bureij and al-Mughazi.
“The entire manufacturing phase is fraught with dangers. If we escape being targeted by the Israeli army in the border areas, we may not be spared from being targeted by the land where we manufacture, especially when burning wood, which leaves large columns of smoke, which the army may think we are resistance fighters,” Ibrahim Jalal, a worker based in Deir-Al Balah, said.
3. DIY Hacks from Scrap Material for Practical Use
While trying to survive under the harshest of conditions, Palestinians lived up to the “necessity is the mother of invention” motto by persevering against all odds. From DIY life-saving hacks to creating food blogs with aid packages, their resilience continues to inspire millions across the globe.
Ahmed Matar, a 27-year-old man who once dreamed of traveling the Earth with his camera and degree in media, channeled his determination toward keeping his family safe by vlogging DIY survival hacks on Instagram with basic materials, often considered trash.
Matar uses sticks, plastic scraps, and his imagination to create vital tools. On his instagram page, which amassed over 28,000 followers from all over the world, Ahmed shared videos showing Palestinians using solar panels for charging phones.
Due to the massive shortage of food supplies, Palestinians in Gaza are forced to stand for hours on end to receive little food and water. Matar sought to ease the problem by showing how to make a drawstring back out of ropes and a sack with just a few knots, which could aid his people in carrying empty bottles with greater ease.
With skyrocketing prices and supplies running out, Ahmed came up with a genius hack to prolong the usage of a mere bar soap, which he believes, is “more scarce than WiFi in Gaza.”
He accomplished this by melting soap bars and pouring the liquid into empty tablet blister packs, converting one bar into mini soap tablets to use on the go.
4. Clay Ovens
With Israel’s targeting and bombing of almost all of the 130 bakeries in Gaza and the blackout of electricity and fuel, Palestinians resorted to making and using clay ovens to bake bread.
While traditional clay ovens were widely used across Palestine in the past, electric cookers eventually replaced them. In the absence of electricity, Gazans resorted to using clay ovens made from clay and straw, which are mixed together and leveled. A slab is also placed in the center for moving the bread.
5. Water Filtration Systems
Israel’s targeting of water tanks in Gaza resulted in an acute shortage of clean water.
To overcome this, Palestinians used materials from scrap and pebbles, filling empty bottles with them to become DIY water filtration systems.
Others used chunks of wood and plastic containers to build makeshift overhead tanks in their tents to hold water.
In wake of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the resilience of the Palestinian people has left the world in awe as they continue to find remarkable ways to exist and share joy.
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