As Gaza braces for a cold, wet winter, displaced Palestinians living in tents and makeshift shelters by the sea are sewing clothes from blankets in a desperate effort to stay warm.
Nidaa Attia, 31, and others measure, cut and sew the clothing in a tent near the beach at Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
The work is entirely manual and labour intensive. Lacking electricity, they generate power by using the pedals of a bicycle connected by a belt to their sewing machine.
“Winter is coming for the second time (since the start of the war) and people are without any (warm) clothes,” Attia said.
“There are no clothes coming into the Gaza Strip, so we thought a lot about how we could find a solution to the lack of fabrics, and we came up with the idea of recycling thermal blankets into winter clothes,” Attia said.
Her “Needle and Thread” initiative, launched in September, relies mostly on volunteers, though some receive a small payment. The clothes are sold for between 70 and 120 shekels ($18-$30) but prices are lower for those who bring blankets.
Read the full Reuters story here.