After spending two years living in a tent, Palestinian potter Jaafar Atallah decided to turn the very earth beneath his feet into a home for his parents. With cement and steel difficult to obtain in Gaza, he gathered around 15 people, collected local clay and experimented with mud bricks until they managed to build a dome-shaped dwelling. The Financial Times reported on Atallah’s effort in June 2026, describing how his family’s traditional pottery skills had become a way to seek shelter amid widespread destruction and shortages of construction materials.
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