Quite some families of the north Gaza are back to the neighborhoods. When they return, they find that the majority of the buildings are totally burnt down.
Although the houses are in their ruins, these people desire to live in their own territory once again. They are coming up with means of constructing small shelters to enable them to remain in the areas that they are fond of.
The construction of a modern house using new materials is hardly possible at the moment. Cement is now very expensive, reaching up to 1,500 shekels per bag. The majority of the population just cannot afford to pay that much money on building supplies. They are not surrendering and instead looking down where they are standing.Discovery of ancient rocks in the rubble.
Families are gathering old stones from demolished buildings to construct basic sleeping spaces. They look for half-stones or anything still strong enough to use. Without the means to buy cement, they bind the stones with mud and dirt, a slow and labor-intensive process that requires painstaking effort.
These improvised shelters are often located in highly dangerous areas. Many families build near the Yellow Line, a particularly perilous zone. Others reconstruct on sites such as the “Peace Project,” which had existed forty or fifty years before its destruction. Though these areas are now left with shattered walls and emptiness, residents remain resolute in staying.
A small room for the family
The target of most people is to have a single room that they can make their own and have some privacy. They repair the ancient stones and re-plaster with the mud to help the walls to stand erectly again.
Local Abu Ahmed al-Omari, said:
“We are in the Baitullah Project, near the Yellow Line. We have returned to rebuild our destroyed homes and heritage with our own hands.”
The life in these tiny rooms is extremely primitive as there is neither electricity nor frequent water supplies. Although the structures appear weak, they symbolize much effort and labour.
It is also frightening to live in such shattered constructions since the walls might collapse at any moment. They are always afraid and feel in danger, but most people indicate that they have nothing to do but leave. They abandoned the south to go back to the north in a bid to be close to their native homes, and their history.
The numbers of people trying to patch up an arm of a broken house are increasing daily. They assume that despite the fact that life is extremely tough at the moment, they can gradually revive their neighborhoods. They are preserving their attachment to the land in a rather challenging environment with the help of plain mud and old rocks.
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