Clearing the rubble left from Israel’s sweeping bombardment of the Gaza Strip is expected to take 15 years and cost between $500m and $600m, the UN said on Monday.
The UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (Unrwa) posted on X about the staggering cost and years needed for reconstruction, saying the debris are a potential threat and "harmful". “Debris poses a deadly threat for people in the Gaza Strip as it can contain unexploded ordnance and harmful substances,” Unrwa said, adding that it would take more than 100 trucks to clear rubble. The values show how difficult it will be to rebuild Gaza, even as Israel continues to pummel the enclave. Israel dropped at least 70,000 tonnes of bombs on Gaza between 7 October and 4 May, surpassing the World War II bombings in Dresden, Hamburg, and London combined, according to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. Unrwa cited a report from the UN environment programme released in June which said that 137,297 buildings had been damaged in Gaza, more than half the enclave’s total. It would take sprawling landfill sites occupying between 250 and 500 hectares to dump the rubble, the report said. The report also said that Israel’s offensive likely set the Gaza Strip back 44 years in terms of the development of healthcare, education and wealth. The report found that explosive weapons used in the war have generated around 39 million tonnes of debris, with every square metre of Gaza littered with more than 107kg of debris on average.
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