Above a maze of tents in a crowded displacement camp in Gaza, homemade wind turbines made from scrap metal spin in the sea breeze on Tuesday, bringing electricity to struggling Palestinians.
In the southern Khan Yunis camp, Kamal Al-Dabary has put his skills to work for families living without direct access to the tiny territory’s shattered power grid.
According to the World Bank, more than 90 percent of Gaza’s power generation and distribution capacity was destroyed in April 2026, much of it in Israeli strikes that devastated homes and infrastructure.
Sitting on the ground, Dabary tinkered with electrical wires and metal parts on a plastic table. After carefully twisting cables together and testing them with a multimeter, a small bulb flickered on, signalling that the current was flowing.
When solar panels were still relatively affordable, the 60-year-old bought one and kept moving it around to follow the sun. The war was triggered by the Palestinian Islamist movement’s deadly October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
After three years of war, prices have soared as aid and commercial supplies trickled into Gaza through crossings tightly controlled by Israel. A single solar panel now costs at least 15,000 shekels, nearly $5,000, putting it out of reach for most Gazans.
The former engineering student said they have not had work or income for three years. That is when the idea of a wind turbine came to mind, prompting him to ask why they should not harness the wind by salvaging parts from the rubble.
The turbines are built from scooter motors and old water tanks cut into blades. As the wind turns the blades, they drive a motor that generates electricity, and the power then passes through circuits assembled from parts recovered from destroyed homes before being stored in batteries.
This provides enough electricity to charge phones and run lights, fans and even electric razors, small comforts that have become a luxury for families still living in tents. Nearly all of Gaza’s residents were displaced at least once during the war, and most now live in a small area still under Hamas rule, while Israel controls more than 60 percent of the territory along its perimeter.
The systems help residents hold on until God delivers them from this ordeal and they can return home, said Dabary, who is known locally as Abu Ayman. The output is modest, but in a camp where shortages are constant, every watt counts.
Saleh ben Hasan said the system has changed everything. With health care and medication hard to access in Gaza, the power can also help keep medical equipment running.
If a child needs a nebulizer in the middle of the night, who else can they turn to, ben Hasan asked, noting that electricity is needed and they turn to their brother Abu Ayman.
