Palestinians use clay pots to keep water cool in electricity-short Gaza

The need to keep water cool in Gaza, where electricity is in short supply and 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, has spurred a resurgence in the traditional Palestinian craft of pottery, Reuters reports.

“People are now replacing fridges and cold water in refrigerators with clay pots,” said Bahjat Sabri Attallah, the owner of a pottery factory.

He told Reuters that the industry has seen increased demand amid the destruction wrought by the Israeli military offensive.

But the war has also presented hardships for the potters who today turn the wheels using their feet and shape the clay by hand.

They did not always work this way.

“Whereas we previously worked with clay on (electrical) machines, today we shape clay on machines using our feet, instead,” Attallah said.

Wood now powers the factory’s kiln, which previously ran on fuel, he added.

However, food shortages mean the need for pots for cooking is no longer so great.

“Today we have no meat or vegetables, therefore there is no demand for these items,” Attallah explained.

Amid the sweltering summer heat, shopkeeper Mahmoud Khidr said he was keeping drinking water cool by storing it in a clay pot like the ones at the factory.

“Now we have gone back to the old days,” he said.

Aside from the difficulties of finding and storing water, Palestinians face a humanitarian crisis with shortages of food and fuel and the spread of diseases like polio.

The war in Gaza started when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. The death toll of Palestinians killed by the Israeli military campaign has exceeded 40,000, according to Gaza authorities.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

Standing in his shop, his clay pot perched atop a refrigerator, Khidr said: “We are suffering from everything.”

READ: Palestinian invents system to facilitate filling gas cylinders in southern Gaza