{"id":614272,"date":"2026-09-12T23:46:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T23:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/614272\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T23:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T23:46:14","slug":"left-with-nothing-people-in-gaza-are-forced-to-rent-generators-by-the-hour-features-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/614272\/","title":{"rendered":"Left with nothing, people in Gaza are forced to rent generators by the hour | Features News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gaza City, Gaza Strip \u2013 For more than four hours, Hajj Rabhi al-Fairi, 79, has been standing outside his home in Gaza City with his children and neighbours waiting their turn to use a small generator.<\/p>\n

The generator\u2019s owner pours in the fuel, starts a timer and switches on the machine.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Each family gets a few minutes to operate a pump that pushes water up to a storage tank on the roof, before the generator moves on to the next house.<\/p>\n

For al-Fairi and his neighbours, this is how they get water.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an old water pump, but there is no electricity to run it. We have to rent a generator,\u201d al-Fairi tells Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Since the family returned to their home in October 2025, after fleeing a month earlier during Israel\u2019s assault on their neighbourhood, the generator has become a familiar sight on the streets of Nassr.<\/p>\n

When it arrives, residents gather around it, each carrying a jerrycan of diesel to operate the machine, which they have to pay for themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came back and found the place a tragedy,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Their neighbourhood and home were badly damaged from years of Israeli bombing, with no municipal electricity or water supplies functioning. The family depends on an old pump \u2013 but without electricity, it cannot bring water up to the rooftop tank.<\/p>\n

Each family needs only about seven or eight minutes to fill up their tanks, but with the number of flats in their building, the generator needs to be rented for about an hour.<\/p>\n

The cost has also risen. Al-Rabhi says families used to pay about 80 to 90 shekels ($26-30) to rent a generator for an hour. At different times, the price has risen to about 100 or 120 shekels ($33-40) an hour, excluding the cost of diesel.<\/p>\n

\"AA generator passes through a northern Gaza neighbourhood [Abdelhakim Abu Riash\/Al Jazeera]A generator on wheels<\/p>\n

Khalil Abu Ouda, 39, takes a machine mounted on a horse-driven cart from one house to another. The generator\u2019s metal body is covered in black soot and grease, and white smoke rises from the engine when it operates.<\/p>\n

At each house, Abu Ouda connects long electrical cables to the water pump. The cables stretch across the street as neighbours gather around the machine to wait their turn.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo on, switch it on,\u201d someone calls.<\/p>\n

For Abu Ouda, this machine is both a service for the neighbourhood and an essential source of income for his family.<\/p>\n

He says there are very few small, mobile generators, like his, left in working condition in Gaza. Many have broken down, while spare parts are difficult to find or too expensive to source due to Israel\u2019s siege.<\/p>\n

Mechanics are also expensive to hire, while fuel and engine oil are increasingly scarce and costly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I could, I would lower the price as much as possible,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

At the same time, demand has never been higher.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are under pressure and they need water. If I stayed working until morning, I would keep working,\u201d Abu Ouda says.<\/p>\n

To cope with the demand, he often works for 10 to 12 hours a day, putting pressure on himself and the machine.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this is our livelihood. There is no alternative,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When the home stops providing<\/p>\n

With most Palestinians in Gaza having no home or losing their possessions due to Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza, they have to rent or hire items or services for the most basic household chores.<\/p>\n

This includes washing clothes, something once done at home but now impossible to do with no power.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the war, Abeer Ghorab, 52, used to wash everything herself. Now she gathers clothes from her tent and takes them to a nearby laundry, where they can be washed and dried in far less time and with less effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen these laundries started opening, they gave us some relief,\u201d Ghorab said.<\/p>\n

The difference is particularly important in winter, when heavy clothes, blankets and bedding can take time to dry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn winter, the tracksuits are heavy. They need another day to dry,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I bring them here, they wash and dry them for me, and I get them back clean and dry. That really helps.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AbeerAbeer Ghorab, 52, a displaced Palestinian woman, takes her clothes to a commercial laundry, paying to wash and dry them as water and electricity remain scarce [Abdelhakim Abu Riash\/Al Jazeera]<\/p>\n

But due to a limited income, Ghorab cannot afford to use this laundry service every day.<\/p>\n

Before the war, Ghorab had a washing machine, a refrigerator and regular electricity at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings we once took for granted have become dreams. Now we have to pay for every little thing we used to do at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The loss of the household<\/p>\n

Across Gaza, the infrastructure that once allowed families to carry out everyday tasks at home has been severely disrupted.<\/p>\n

A recent United Nations assessment found that 91 percent of surveyed households experienced moderate-to-high water shortages in early August.<\/p>\n

A separate damage assessment by the authority found that 107,941 of the 178,632 housing units inspected \u2013 about 60 percent \u2013 were severely damaged, destroyed or otherwise considered uninhabitable.<\/p>\n

Water systems, electricity, sanitation and household appliances, which families relied on to manage daily life, have also been disrupted.<\/p>\n

For families living in damaged homes, tents or makeshift shelters, everyday tasks must be paid for.<\/p>\n

A laundry adapting to shortages<\/p>\n

Fadi Abu Shawarb, 23, has worked at his family\u2019s al-Hurriya laundry for six years.<\/p>\n

\"ResidentsResidents now rely on communal washing machines for cleaning clothes [Abdelhakim Abu Riash\/Al Jazeera]<\/p>\n

Before the war, the business relied on large, 50kg (110lb) washing machines for carpets, blankets and other heavy loads. But due to the high cost of operation, these machines are far too expensive to run.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started replacing the 50kg machines with 25kg ones because there is not enough electricity,\u201d Fadi says. \u201cThere are no solar panels, no reliable power, and the generators are always breaking down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of his customers are displaced families who lack electricity, water or washing machines at home.<\/p>\n

The laundry now handles about 20 to 30 loads a day, with clothes-washing among the most in-demand services.<\/p>\n

A load costs six shekels ($2) when the laundry can use solar power and 12 shekels ($4) when it relies on a generator.<\/p>\n

But even that is hard for people to pay. \u201cPeople\u2019s situation is difficult,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

For Ghorab, the laundry is only one of the many expenses she now has to budget for.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m going through a difficult time,\u201d she says. \u201cI have to pay for every little thing in my day, and with how difficult things are, it\u2019s hard to keep up with everything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gaza City, Gaza Strip \u2013 For more than four hours, Hajj Rabhi al-Fairi, 79, has been standing outside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2664,85,46,47,43,48],"class_list":["post-614272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-features","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-palestine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}