we are not numbers
emerging writers from Palestine tell their stories and advocate for their human rights
Despite living under siege, Gazans overcome hunger and deprivation with creativity, ingenuity, and teamwork.
A cooking stove made from refuse and found materials. Photo: Nada Abel Karim Hamdona
I’m a 24-year-old Palestinian woman living in Gaza with my father, mother, four of my five siblings, my brother’s wife and two young children, and other family members.
In the past year and a half, Israel has destroyed our country and killed almost 62,000 of our people, leaving our lives shattered.
We have lost so much. We long for life’s essentials—food, electricity, and water—the things that people in other parts of the world take for granted.
Ours is a typical story. I had to discontinue my master’s program at Al-Aqsa University in international relations and diplomacy (thankfully, four months ago I restarted the program); my father lost his textile and blanket manufacturing business—his factories and store were destroyed, and he and my 30-year-old brother, Aaed, who worked with him, are still unemployed; my 18-year-old sister, Reem, who dreams of becoming a dentist, is unable to complete high school.
Since the war started, we haven’t seen my 22-year-old brother, a medical student in Egypt, and my 14-year-old twin brothers, Mostafa and Abdel Rahim, have not attended school.
Given the tremendous hardships, we have had to find ways to survive. And this has required us to be creative and innovative. With resilience and ingenuity, we have devoted ourselves to survival.
I have been amazed by our ability to find creative solutions to meet our most basic needs for heat, food, medicines, transportation, and so much more. Here are some examples.
Much of our diet now consists of canned food. Not only is canned food less healthy than fresh food, but Gazans are weary of it. My father came up with one solution.
After his business was destroyed, we had no money. My father adapted my grandmother’s homemade cheese recipe, using readily available and simple ingredients. He curdled powdered milk with a little white vinegar and salt, then filtered and pressed it through a sanitized cloth. It is tasty and nutritious.
We call our cheese “My Father the Cheesemaker.” My father sells it in the market, and others have followed his example. Not only has his homemade cheese provided us with financial support, it has shown us what we can accomplish under the most challenging circumstances.
Gas is scarce in Gaza so we have had to find a source of heat to cook our food. I had an idea that a hair dryer might serve as a useful tool for generating heat. I worked on this with my brother, Aaed. Using refuse and found materials, we connected a metal tube to a hair dryer.
Without gas, we had to light a fire using plastic. Plastic is the ideal material for this design since it burns more efficiently and quickly than wood.
As the demand for this solution increased, we discovered that the gadget only functioned in homes with solar panels, so not all Gazan families could use it. But at least we were able to assist some families to develop their own gadgets and overcome one significant constraint on their lives.
Fuel outages have been a regular problem since the war started. My father’s friend Mohammed, an automobile mechanic by trade, has developed an alternative synthetic fuel to power cars and trucks.
Mohammed collects used cooking oil from Gazan residences and restaurants. He gently sifts it through a soft cloth, then combines it with ethanol in precise proportions. He then adds sodium hydroxide, which acts as a chemical catalyst. The fuel is blended and heated to low temperatures before being separated from the resulting contaminants.
This solution has become a lifeline for our family and our neighbors, who depend on their cars to make a living and feed their children.
Our 35-year-old friend, Samira, transformed an old bicycle into a washing machine while she was living in a tent in a small Gazan neighborhood.
She fastened a metal chain to the bike’s wheels and tied it to a little tub. The wheels move the tub as the pedals are turned, allowing people to avoid the cumbersome and time-consuming process of washing clothes by hand.
One of the most significant problems for Gazans has been the acute lack of medication and skin care products. Skin diseases in children have proliferated in wartime Gaza, particularly rashes, irritation, scabies, and redness from malnourishment and the lack of water.
To treat their children, mothers have turned to the traditional remedies used by older generations, including:
Gaza is so much more than a war zone; it is a reminder to the world that suffering cannot stifle originality and resilience.
I am so proud of the people of Gaza. We refuse to allow our harsh circumstances to dictate who we are and how we live. We respond to deprivation and hunger with creativity. We confront life head-on with inventions that show us that we can and will survive this war.
