"Newton Of Gaza": Palestinian Teenager Generates Electricity Amidst Ruins Of War (image: screengrab from Al Jazeera)
Palestinians are known for their ability to create anything out of nothing. While the Israeli occupation force is having a chokehold on the 2.3 million of Palestinians, by cutting off the most basic necessities like food, water, and electricity, Hussam Al-Attar, a 15-year-old Palestinian teenager has successfully generated electricity from wind by using the basic tools. Al-Attar is called as “the Newton of Gaza”.
Talking to Quds Press, Al-Attar said, “I looked at my twin nephews and saw only fear in their eyes. They felt lonely in the dark inside the tent. So I thought…bring joy to them, and light up this place”. He said the cold wind that “seeps into the children’s body, exhausting them with fatigue and illness”, has inspired him turn the cold wind into a source of warm and heat.
Talking to Al Jazeera, Al-Attar said he thought about “illuminating” the darkness of the tent. He went to market and bought a dynamo for one shekel. He then bought a blade fan and put them on top of each other, until they started producing electricity. Whenever there is wind, day or night, there would be electricity. Al-Attar said, he wished he had batteries so that he can store the electricity. “Then we would have it 24/7”, said the teenager.
Hussam Al-Attar was a student of Jabel Mukaber School in the northern Gaza. After Israel started to bomb the besieged coastal enclave on October 7th, he lost his home. Al-Attar then moved from their home in Beit Lahia to Al Nasr, and then Khan Younis on foot. Now they are at Rafah, near the Egyptian border.
Al Attar’s proud mother said he was a talented young boy and would like to play with anything he could get his hands on. She said, “he made something useful out of nothing, and families also turned to him to repair their electric tools”. The mother hopes to see her son as a great inventor who will benefit his community and cause.
The young inventor of Palestine said there are lots “innovative people” like him in Gaza, but no one care or pay attention to their inventions. He called on the Arab leaders to intervene and put an end to the war.
“This is a Palestinian generation that will not be defeated. It is the generation that is searching for life in the midst of darkness and death”, said Al Attar’s mother. “I love life, and I adore its details. I wish to be an inventor and discoverer, but it is impossible for the Palestine to die inside me.
Israel has killed more than 26,900 Palestinians and wounded 65,949. 85 percentage, or 1.9 million, of the total population of the Gaza Strip were displaced, since October 7, as said by Gaza Health Ministry.
