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.

“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 bombardment 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.

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