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 place of work since his clinic on al-Bahr Street in Rafah was destroyed by Israeli bombing in April 2024. His second and third clinics in Khan Younis’s Old City, southern Gaza, were subsequently 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 received patients for the past two years. This transitory 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 air raids over the past three years, leaving professionals to conduct their work from tents or on the road.
This phenomenon emerged in December 2023 following the displacement of Khan Younis residents to a narrow strip of coastal land between their hometown and Deir el-Balah. After a ceasefire, repeatedly broken by Israel, was announced for the enclave in October 2025, more of these tent offices, surgeries and shops emerged across Gaza as professionals sought to continue their practices. Working within these canvas confines presents multiple challenges for al-Khalidi.
There is limited space, unreliable electricity, and the intense heat and loud noises to deal with. The setting bears little resemblance to his previous practice in a bricks-and-mortar office, but he still feels this arrangement is better than suspending services altogether. There is a massive need for prosthetics in Gaza, where between 5,000 and 6,000 people have undergone amputations between October 2023 and October 2025.
Some have lost a limb during the war, while 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), 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 have encouraged Palestinians to find solutions to this situation.
Tents are now where lawyers meet clients, doctors treat patients, and traders sell their wares. After Omar al-Tawashi, a civil engineer and construction auditor, saw his office destroyed in an Israeli air strike in August 2024, he began work from his home in July 2025. But that too met the same fate, so he shifted operations to a tent in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, to continue his work.
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