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Khan Younis, Gaza – Dr. Mohammed al-Khalidi, a specialist in prosthetics and orthotics, sits in a modest tent in al-Mawasi, southern Gaza. It has been his workplace since his clinic on al-Bahr Street in Rafah was destroyed by Israeli bombing in April 2024. His second and third clinics in the old city of Khan Younis, south of Gaza, were then destroyed by Israel in May 2025.
After this triple heartbreaking setback, Al-Khalidi salvaged whatever medical equipment he could find and moved into his new office, a tent, where he has been receiving patients for the past two years.
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This transitional space reflects a new reality in Gaza since Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave began in October 2023. Offices, clinics and shops have been wiped out in waves of Israeli airstrikes over the past three years, leaving professionals to conduct their work from tents or on the streets.
This phenomenon arose in December 2023 after the relocation of Khan Younis residents to a narrow strip of coastal land between their hometown and Deir el-Balah.
After a cease-fire, repeatedly broken by Israel, was announced for the enclave in October 2025, more of these tent offices, operations and businesses emerged throughout Gaza as professionals tried to continue their practices.
Challenges
Working within these canvas boundaries presents several challenges for al-Khalidi. There is limited space, unreliable electricity, and intense heat and loud noises to deal with.
The setting bears little resemblance to his previous practice in a brick-and-mortar office, but he still believes this arrangement is better than suspending services altogether.
There is a massive need for prosthetics in Gaza, where between October 2023 and October 2025, between 5,000 and 6,000 people underwent amputations.
“Working from a temporary space is nothing like working in a fully equipped clinic, but for me it is better than stopping the service altogether,” Al-Khalidi told Al Jazeera.
“Patients who need prosthetic limbs or orthotic devices cannot always wait until conditions return to normal. Some have lost a limb during the war, others need follow-up care or adjustments to devices they rely on in their daily lives.”
More than four-in-five buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed since Israel’s genocidal war began in 2023, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), which is creating a real estate crisis.
The lack of office space has seen rental prices reach unaffordable levels for most Gaza professionals. But resilience, necessity and duty encouraged the Palestinians to find solutions to this situation. Tents are now where lawyers meet clients, doctors treat patients, and merchants sell their wares.
Repeated shift
After Omar al-Tawashi, a civil engineer and construction auditor, saw his office destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in August 2024, he started from his home in July 2025. But that too suffered the same fate, so he moved operations to a tent in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, to continue his work.
“My move to a tent was not a professional choice. It was a direct result of the destruction of the place where I worked, compounded by the rent crisis, which made it extremely difficult to find an alternative office,” he said.
“In some cases, rents have risen to more than 10 times their pre-war level, making a new office above my average.”
The tent is not a suitable environment for his engineering work, but there is no alternative for Al-Tawashi.
“There is heat, cold and noise, and none of the privacy needed when discussing projects or reviewing technical files,” Omar said. “But quitting the job means losing my source of income”.
In the crowded market in the Nuseirat camp, central Gaza, accountant Mahmoud Shaheen receives customers in a small tent amid the sound of neighboring vendors and passers-by.
Shaheen was once responsible for the accounts of a Gaza-based company, but the office was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in November 2025.
“Moving into a tent was not so much a professional choice as a response to a reality imposed by the war,” he told Al Jazeera.
With the start of the new school year in Gaza last month, tents have been set up across the country to replace schools destroyed in Israeli airstrikes or turned into shelters for the displaced.
School starts
Teacher Palestine Hussein is forced to adapt to this new reality. She previously taught English at an education center in Bureij in central Gaza, which she spent years building.
It was destroyed in seconds when an Israeli airstrike destroyed the educational facility, so she now teaches children from a tent near al-Balata, a camp for displaced Palestinians in Nuseirat.
There is a lack of seats for students, ventilation or protection against noise and heat. But despite these challenges, Hussein is determined to give children in the camp some form of education.
“Although the tent may seem like a temporary place, for me it is an attempt to hold on to what remains of my profession and build my dream from scratch, even with the most basic resources,” Hussein told Al Jazeera.
New reality
Merchant Khalil al-Tahrawi saw his clothing store in Nuseirat destroyed by Israeli bombing in October 2023. After rescuing surviving goods from his destroyed shop, he displayed his wares – mostly men’s T-shirts and jeans – in a small tent at the Nuseirat market.
He pays $350 a month in rent for the small sidewalk to sell the clothes he removes every night to protect them from thieves.
“This routine makes work even more difficult and consumes my time and energy,” Al-Tahrawi told Al Jazeera.
![Trader Khalil Al-Tahrawi displays clothes in a small tent on the street in Nuseirat market after his shop was destroyed during the war October 6, 2026. [Iyad Al-Qatrawi/Al Jazeera]](https://nachrichtenaktuell.top/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/4-1791623015.jpeg)
Repeated power cuts, unreliable internet and lack of equipment have complicated the efforts of Gaza’s business community to rebuild during this period of a relative decrease in bombardment.
Customers also change their consumption patterns, going to certain cities or warehouses for a certain good or service. Often what they find are prices more inflated than during Israel’s siege of Gaza before Israel’s genocidal war.
One customer, Mohammed Zweid, a 24-year-old IT worker, browses through a market in Nuseirat. “Access to professionals in shelters and temporary places is better than having no service at all,” he told Al Jazeera. “The transformation has changed not only where services are delivered, but also how they are experienced.”
