Feature: Ordinary Gazans try hard to heal wounds of war

"I am old. I do not want to leave my home though it is badly damaged. There is no place in the world better than my own home," he told Xinhua on Tuesday evening.

"I do not want to move to another place. Even if I die, I want to die at my home," he said, adding that he and his wife are the only people living in the building as 11 other family members have moved elsewhere.

Another reason for his determination to stay, said Mahamad, is that if he leaves, he will possibly never be able to return to his home, which is about 1 km from the Israel-Gaza border.

After 18 years of hard work, Mahamad built the home, which cost him about 150,000 U.S. dollars.

"My home was destroyed by Israeli tank fire in just one minute," he said, blaming Israel for the destruction.

"Israel, Hamas and Fatah are all legal governments, but the Palestinian people seem to be illegal," Mahamad said.