Hussam Al-Attar, a teenager, has built his own source of electricity to light up the tent where he and his family are living after being displaced by Israel’s assault on Gaza.
People in the surrounding tent camp have given him the nickname “Gaza Newton” in recognition of his ingenuity. “They started calling me Gaza’s Newton because we look and sound similar,” said Al-Attar, who is 15 years old.
“Newton was sitting under an apple tree when an apple fell on his head and he discovered gravity. And we here are living in darkness and tragedy, and rockets are falling on us, therefore I thought of creating light, and did so.”
Isaac Newton, an English scientist who made enormous advances in physics, mathematics, and astronomy in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, is well-known in popular culture thanks to the apple story.
Newton of Gaza
More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are now crammed into Rafah, located on the southern edge of the strip and separated from Egypt by a fence.
The Al-Attar family has attached their tent to the side of a one-story house, allowing Hussam to climb onto the roof and set up his two fans, one above the other, to function as miniature wind turbines capable of charging batteries.
Thin piece of plywood
He then connected the fans to wires running down the house, using switches, lightbulbs, and a thin piece of plywood extending into the tent to create a custom lighting system for his family.
He stated that his first two attempts were unsuccessful, and it took him some time to develop the system before it worked on the third try.
“I started developing it further, bit by bit, until I was able to extend the wires through the room to the tent that we are living in, so that the tent will have light,” he said.
“I was very happy that I was able to make this, because I eased the suffering of my family, my mother, my sick father, and my brother’s young children, and everyone here who is suffering from the conditions that we live in during this war.”
The war was started by militants from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, who invaded southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 253, according to Israel.
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