Gaza Is Rebuilding With Lego-Like Bricks Made From Rubble

According to Abu Hassanin and Jouda, early tests show the bricks provide better thermal and sound insulation than the tents many displaced families currently live in. But the project remains experimental and has not been tested at the scale required for long-term reconstruction.

Current production ranges between 1,000 and 1,500 bricks per day—theoretically enough to build a small shelter in roughly two weeks. But every stage of the process remains difficult. Without heavy machinery, amid repeated power outages and damaged infrastructure, even transporting and crushing rubble becomes labor intensive.

The challenges are not only technical. They also include the lack of proper equipment and the broader political restrictions imposed by the Israeli blockade, which continues to limit access to essential construction materials. Despite the availability of skilled workers inside Gaza and technical support from outside, Abu Hassanin says funding remains the main obstacle preventing the project from moving more quickly toward implementation.

That reality has pushed some reconstruction efforts toward smaller, improvised local systems instead.

The project also carries risks and limitations. Humanitarian organizations and reconstruction experts have warned that rubble in Gaza may contain hazardous materials, including asbestos, heavy metals, and unexploded ordnance. Even if recycled blocks can help create temporary shelters, rebuilding entire neighborhoods would still require infrastructure, machinery, and material access on a vastly different scale.

Still, projects like Green Rock are emerging because few alternatives currently exist.

Compared to traditional reconstruction models that depend on imported materials and large international rebuilding programs, the project represents a hyperlocal response shaped by scarcity. It also reduces construction costs by roughly 50 to 60 percent, while creating work opportunities for displaced people involved in collecting, sorting, and producing materials.

Inside the workshop, the project feels less like a startup than an adaptation to collapse. The rubble of destroyed buildings moves through improvised machines and returns as walls, shelters, and stacked blocks waiting to be assembled again.