Gaza Engineer Builds Wind Turbines From Scrap to Power Families

Above a maze of tents in a crowded displacement camp in Khan Younis, homemade wind turbines built from scooter motors and cut-open water tanks are spinning in the sea breeze, throwing current into batteries that light bulbs, charge phones, and run a child’s nebulizer in the middle of the night. The turbines are the work of Kamal Al-Dabary, a 60-year-old former engineering student, and they exist because almost everything else that used to bring power to Gaza is gone. The Times of Israel reported that Al-Dabary, known locally as Abu Ayman, assembled the devices from scrap metal and salvaged debris after three years of war left his family with no work, no income, and no connection to what remains of the territory’s shattered grid.

This is the story of a territory where, according to the World Bank, more than 90 percent of Gaza’s power generation and distribution capacity was destroyed by April 2026, much of it in IDF strikes during the war that began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. With the grid in ruins and commercial supplies trickling through crossings controlled by Israel, the price of a single solar panel has climbed to at least 15,000 shekels — nearly $5,000 — putting it out of reach for most families. “When solar panels were still relatively affordable, we bought one and kept moving it around to follow the sun,” Al-Dabary told AFP. “We haven’t had work or income for three years. That’s when the idea of a wind turbine came to mind. Why not harness the wind? So we salvaged parts from the rubble.”

From Rubble to a Working Circuit

Sitting on the ground in his makeshift workshop on November 3, 2026, Al-Dabary twisted cables together on a plastic table and tested them with a multimeter. A small bulb flickered on, then another, signaling that current was flowing. The turbines work simply: wind turns blades cut from old water tanks, the blades drive scooter motors that generate electricity, and the power passes through circuits assembled from parts recovered from destroyed homes before being stored in batteries. The output is modest, but in a camp where shortages are constant, every watt counts. The electricity is enough to charge phones, run lights and fans, power electric razors, and keep medical equipment running.

For 50-year-old Saleh ben Hasan, whose family has struggled to reach healthcare and medication, the difference is not abstract. The system “has changed everything,” he said. “If a child needs a nebulizer in the middle of the night, who else can we turn to? Electricity is needed… So we turn to our brother Abu Ayman.”

Three Years of Displacement, One Camp at a Time

The turbines are a response to a displacement crisis that has touched nearly everyone in the territory. 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 half of the territory along its perimeter. In the Khan Younis camp, families live in tents with no direct access to the grid, and prices have soared as aid and commercial goods arrive slowly through tightly controlled crossings.

Gaza's Homemade Wind Turbines Bring Electricity To Displaced Families | NewsX World

“They help us hold on… until God delivers us from this ordeal and we can return home,” he said.

What happens next depends on access: whether more materials can cross into Gaza, whether the crossings open wider, and whether the small, improvised systems like Al-Dabary’s can be replicated across the camps before the winter winds shift. The turbines will not rebuild a power grid, but for the families gathered around the flickering bulbs in Khan Younis, they are the difference between darkness and a light they can count on tonight.