A 27-year-old Palestinian, Yahya Khusaik, has transformed an abandoned Israeli armored vehicle in Tal al-Hawa, Gaza City, into a solar-powered mobile phone charging station. Using installed solar panels, he provides displaced residents in his neighborhood with a place to recharge their phones.
Khusaik explained that he rebuilt the vehicle using materials he found after losing his parents, siblings, two family homes, and his coffee-operating business during the ongoing conflict. He noted that the vehicle now serves two key roles: as shelter from the weather and as a functioning space where locals can charge their phones. He describes the project as turning a “death machine” into “peace and life.”
Residents in the area regularly visit the station to maintain communication with relatives amid the constant disruption of electricity in Gaza. For Khusaik, the project is both a means of survival and a symbolic effort to restore a sense of continuity within the community.
