Gaza Residents Forced to Rent Generators by the Hour for Basic Water Access

GAZA CITY – For over four hours each day, 79-year-old Hajj Rabhi al-Fairi stands outside his home in the Nassr neighborhood of Gaza City, waiting alongside his children and neighbors for a turn to use a portable generator. The machine’s owner fuels it, starts a timer, and allows each household a brief window to operate a pump that pushes water to rooftop storage tanks before moving to the next property.

“We have an old water pump, but there is no electricity to run it. We have to rent a generator,” al-Fairi told Al Jazeera. Since returning to his damaged home in October 2025 after fleeing an earlier assault, the generator has become a routine necessity. The neighborhood lacks functioning municipal water and electricity supplies due to years of bombing.

While each family requires only seven or eight minutes to fill their tanks, the high number of apartments in their building means renting the generator for an hour is essential. The cost of this service has surged. Al-Fairi noted that families previously paid between 80 and 90 shekels ($26-$30) per hour, but prices have climbed to 100 or 120 shekels ($33-$40), not including the price of diesel fuel.

Khalil Abu Ouda, 39, operates one such mobile unit, mounting the soot-covered generator on a horse-drawn cart and navigating it from house to house. He connects long electrical cables to residents’ water pumps, with wires stretching across streets as neighbors gather to wait. For Abu Ouda, the service is both a community lifeline and a critical income source, though maintaining the equipment is increasingly difficult.

“There are very few small, mobile generators, like his, left in working condition in Gaza,” the report indicated. Many machines have broken down, and spare parts are scarce or prohibitively expensive due to the siege. Mechanics are costly to hire, and fuel and engine oil are diminishing resources.

“If I could, I would lower the price as much as possible,” Abu Ouda said. “But demand has never been higher. People are under pressure and they need water. If I stayed working until morning, I would keep working. This is our livelihood. There is no alternative.”

The struggle for basic utilities extends beyond water. With most Palestinians in Gaza having lost their homes or possessions, essential household chores now require payment. Abeer Ghorab, 52, formerly washed clothes at home but now relies on commercial laundries that offer relief from the labor-intensive process, particularly during winter when heavy bedding takes days to dry.

“Things we once took for granted have become dreams. Now we have to pay for every little thing we used to do at home,” Ghorab said. Before the conflict, she had a washing machine, refrigerator, and regular electricity. Today, limited income forces her to budget carefully for services she previously performed without cost.

Laundry owners are adapting to the energy crisis as well. Fadi Abu Shawarb, 23, works at his family’s al-Hurriya laundry, which has replaced large 50kg industrial machines with smaller 25kg units due to unreliable power and the high cost of running older equipment. Solar panels are unavailable, and generators frequently break down.

The laundry now processes 20 to 30 loads daily, primarily serving displaced families. A single load costs six shekels ($2) if powered by solar energy, but doubles to 12 shekels ($4) when generator power is required. For customers like Ghorab, even these adjusted prices represent a significant financial burden.

Infrastructure assessments highlight the scale of the devastation. A United Nations report found that 91 percent of surveyed households faced moderate-to-high water shortages in early August. Additionally, damage evaluations revealed that approximately 60 percent of the 178,632 housing units inspected were severely damaged, destroyed, or uninhabitable.

As water systems, electricity grids, and sanitation networks remain disrupted, families living in damaged homes or makeshift shelters face a new reality where basic survival tasks incur daily fees.