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Why don't they? What do they use instead?

They barely build them here in the UK. The US has an abundance of wood, so you can build wood framed wood clad houses cheaply.

Palestine is not only without forests but semi-embargoed; it looks from the news footage that cement block or hollow brick are common.

Only the West Bank and Gaza are embargoed; but I live in Haifa which is under Israeli control.

In the far past, stone was common; and indeed, today it's cement and hollow bricks. Both in the 1948-occupied parts (= Israel) and the 1967-occupied parts.

A lot of the middle east use some sort of stone or mud/dirt. Partly because lumber is not as plentiful and earthquakes are not much of a thing. Plus concrete / stone has better sound privacy characteristics and doesn't catch on fire.

Actually, earthquakes _are_ a thing in eastern Palestine - it's right next to this major fault line:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian-African_Rift_Valley

we have very-minor earthquakes occasionally, and I think a major earthquake once a century or so.

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