Gaza rug maker revives 300-year-old family craft in ruins left by Israeli war

In a cramped room beneath his home in eastern Gaza City, Palestinian craftsman Hussein Mahmoud al-Sawwaf turns a wooden wheel by hand as strands of wool and acrylic stretch across a simple loom, gradually taking the shape of a handmade rug.

There is no electricity, no modern machinery and no trace of the large factory where al-Sawwaf worked before Israel's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

All he has are simple tools, yarn salvaged from the destruction and hands that know the craft well.

At his modest home in the Tuffah neighborhood, near the "Yellow Line" where Israeli forces are deployed, al-Sawwaf has converted a small space into a workshop for making handmade carpets and rugs after his factory was destroyed and its warehouses burned during the war.

With carpets, rugs and floor mats scarce in Gaza's markets and the few available products increasingly expensive, al-Sawwaf has revived a craft his family has passed down for about 300 years.

For him, rug-making is no longer simply about preserving his ancestors' profession. It has become a way to provide a cheaper product for Palestinians exhausted financially by the war while restoring a source of income for some of the workers who lost their jobs when his factory was destroyed.

Demand for such products has grown as widespread destruction of homes and businesses has stripped Palestinians of livelihoods and household belongings.

Large numbers of people have also been forced to live in tents, shelters and temporary accommodation after their homes were destroyed, damaged or rendered uninhabitable.