Two teenage sisters from Gaza, Farah (15) and Tala (17) Mousa, have won the Middle East regional prize at the Earth Prize — a global youth environmental award — for developing a method to compress war debris into lightweight, reusable bricks. The sisters, who have been repeatedly displaced since their home was destroyed and currently live in a tent, created the bricks by crushing rubble and combining it with materials such as clay, ash, and glass powder; the blocks are intended for non-load-bearing applications like pavements and partition walls. The pair will use their $12,500 prize to run workshops training around 100 young people to make the bricks themselves, saying they hoped communities could "participate in reconstruction themselves, instead of waiting only for outside help" — a pressing concern given that the UN estimates nearly 90% of Gaza's population has been displaced since the war began in October 2023.