With scant supplies, Gaza turns to homemade equipment to battle coronavirus

Palestinians in the blockaded enclave have found creative ways to fight Covid-19 from building makeshift ventilators to 3D-printing face shields

Palestinian workers manufacture protective coverall suits and masks at a workshop in Gaza City on March 30, 2020 amid coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic (Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty)

On a battered workbench using makeshift materials, Farouk Sharaf, an electrical engineer in Gaza, puts the finishing touches to his home-made ventilator.

The mechanical device, made of a self-inflating ambu bag valve mask and metal piston, looks disarmingly rudimentary – but it works.

Once it is perfected and tested by health ministry officials, the 36-year-old specialist plans to build at least 100 machines to save lives amid an outbreak of the deadly coronavirus in the besieged Palestinian enclave.