‘They destroy, we build’: Gazans rebuild their homes out of mud and rubble
Tareq S. Hajjaj reports in Mondoweiss on 2 September 2026:
Next to his destroyed home in Khan Younis, Fayez Abu Shamala, 76, a Palestinian academic and former mayor of Khan Younis, is building again.
Abu Shamala salvaged usable stones from the debris of destroyed buildings, collected and repaired them, and, with the help of his family, built a small house. Instead of cement, unavailable anywhere in Gaza, he used clay to hold the stones together.
He then fixed pieces of nylon over the walls to protect them from rain. He also recovered some windows and doors from the wreckage, modified them, and installed them in what is now his home.
“I am here on my land,” Abu Shamala said. “To my right is the house I built, and to my left is the house the Israeli army destroyed. They are the destroyers, and we are the builders.”
Abu Shamlah has slept in a mudhouse before, after he was displaced from his village in what is now the city of Ashkelon during the 1948 Nakba, when his family was forced from their land and lived for years in mud houses in the Gaza Strip. More than seven decades later, the cycle is being repeated across Gaza.
As Israel blocks the entry of cement, steel, and all conventional building materials, classifying them as “dual-use” items that could serve a military purpose, Abu Shamala and others across Gaza are constructing mud houses to brace for the cold and rainy season. By October 2025, UNOSAT satellite imagery found approximately 81 percent of all structures in the Gaza Strip had been damaged, with more than 123,000 destroyed outright. The UN estimates that the destruction generated 61 million tonnes of rubble. With large-scale reconstruction at a standstill, Palestinians are rebuilding with whatever they can salvage.
Alternatives to the alternatives
On August 15, the first two-story building in the Gaza Strip constructed entirely without banned building materials was unveiled. The building was constructed of steel rebar and aluminum on the inside and Jerusalem limestone on the outside. All the materials were extracted from the rubble.