In the shattered heart of Khan Younis, where rubble lines the streets and silence replaces the hum of industry, 50-year-old Ayman Qudeih has done what many believed impossible—he began again. After the Israeli military operation reduced his plastic factory in Khuza’a to debris, Qudeih refused to surrender to despair. Instead, he stood up amid the ruins and built something new from what war could not erase: determination.

His journey back began with salvaged machinery, repaired with his sons’ help. With rented equipment and scorched barrels collected from bombed streets, he launched a new factory in northeastern Khan Younis. This time, it was not about profit, but survival. They transformed plastic waste into essential products and even processed the remnants into makeshift fuel, offering a small but vital lifeline in a city throttled by blockade and fuel shortages.

Qudeih’s revival is not just an act of personal resilience—it is a powerful testament to Gaza’s spirit. In a place where daily life is systematically dismantled, where families are displaced and livelihoods erased, he found a way to turn destruction into utility. His initiative, like those of others in Gaza, is a silent act of resistance against a war that aims to extinguish not only lives, but hope.

Amid famine, siege, and despair, Qudeih’s story reminds the world that Gaza is not merely surviving—it is enduring with ingenuity, and fighting to live.