Palestinian puppet maker turns tins into toys in ruins of war

Deir el-Balah – On a cinder block work table in the war-torn Gaza Strip, puppet maker Mahdi Karira is busy turning old tin cans into figurines.

He hums as he works, knowing his makeshift marionettes will put a smile on the faces of children displaced by the more than six-month war in the coastal Palestinian territory. 

“These puppets can make things around us beautiful,” he said, surveying his handiwork.

Before the war, Karira had a whole store of brightly-coloured puppets and often took them to perform in theatres. 

Now, he performs in camps for displaced people after Israeli bombardment forced him to flee his home in Gaza City to Deir al-Balah, in the centre of the narrow strip.

Several puppets are suspended along the workshop walls, their bodies topped by expressive human faces carved onto wood or tin cans, their limbs hooked to strings which Karira uses to make them walk and talk.

With Gaza under siege, new materials are hard to come by, so he makes do with debris, fishing line and old sardine tins stamped with the United Nations logo, which he brings to life with a touch of paint.

“Unfortunately, after the displacement, there were no more puppets, no more theatre,” he told AFP. “I left all my work in Gaza City,” in the territory’s north. 

“There aren’t many raw materials to work with — only cans of all shapes and sizes around us.”

– Puppets tell ‘beautiful things’ –

UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, estimates the war in Gaza has displaced around 850,000 children in Gaza. Many are sheltering in camps around Deir al-Balah, where childhood fun is a distant memory.

“I try to make shows and performances to bring joy to the children in the displacement camps, so we remain steadfast on this earth despite the aggressions,” Karira said in reference to Israel’s air and ground campaign in Gaza, sitting beside his pliers and a painted puppet head.

As the war rumbles on around him, Karira said it was vital to keep up his craft.

“The most important thing is to remain faithful to your work by creating your art,” he said. 

“Each of us has his trade, his talents, and his art that allows him to continue to have an activity despite the aggression.”

The war broke out after Hamas militants’ unprecedented October 7 attack which resulted in the deaths of about 1,170 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 34,450 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory says.

The territory’s cultural heritage has also been devastated — from arts centres and museums to historic buildings. 

As he watches Gaza reduced to rubble, Karira said the puppets “can tell beautiful things, tell our history and stories to children.”