Photos: Palestinians rebuild Gaza’s ruins with mud bricks, scrap

In PicturesSaveSharefacebookxwhatsapp-strokecopylinkPalestinians build a room from mud bricks in Nuseirat in central Gaza, as construction supplies run short [File: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]By APPublished On 8 Sep 20268 Sep 2026Palestinians in Gaza are turning to mud bricks, salvaged wood, and sheets of fabric and plastic to rebuild homes and shops shattered by Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave.Across neighbourhoods flattened by months of bombardment, families stack handmade bricks directly atop broken concrete, improvising fragile walls over cratered floors.The rudimentary structures offer little protection from heat, rain, or cold, but residents say they are the only alternative to sleeping in overcrowded tents or in the open air.Gaza authorities say more than 90 percent of the Strip has been destroyed since October 2023, leaving much of the Gaza Strip without adequate housing or basic infrastructure.Israel has killed at least 73,658 Palestinians, including more than 21,500 children, according to Palestinian health authorities and Gaza’s Government Media Office.The office estimates that Israel has dropped about 223,000 tonnes of explosives on the territory, generating about 68 million tonnes of rubble.The United Nations says only about 310,000 tonnes – less than 0.5 percent – have so far been cleared, a pace that would take more than a century to remove the debris that now underpins Gaza’s fragile, handmade homes.Palestinians make clay bricks in the Maghazi refugee camp amid severe shortages of construction materials in the Gaza Strip. [File: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]Palestinians raise mud-brick walls as an alternative to scarce construction supplies in the Gaza Strip. [File: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]Khalil Abu Ramadan, 26, moulds clay bricks in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza. [File: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]Palestinians fill plastic containers with water to mix clay for bricks in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza. [File: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]Khalil Abu Deeb, 31, makes clay bricks to rebuild a house in Gaza's Maghazi refugee camp. [File: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]Palestinian carpenter Alaa Joudah, 39, cuts wood for a new house beside the ruins of his home, destroyed during the war in Gaza City. [File: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]Julia Joudeh, 11, climbs to her new wooden house built on the rubble of her family home destroyed during the war in the Gaza Strip. [File: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]Palestinians make clay bricks as Gaza faces a shortage of construction materials. [File: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]Palestinian workers repair a war-damaged shop, using fabric in place of construction supplies unavailable in Gaza. [File: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]Gaza authorities say more than 90 percent of the territory has been destroyed since Israel launched its offensive, leaving much of Gaza without adequate housing or basic infrastructure. [File: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]