Gaza Residents Use Building Rubble to Repair Roads

JAKARTA - Palestinian residents are using the rubble of buildings from the war to repair roads destroyed by Israeli attacks during two years of aggression in the Gaza Strip, crushing concrete and metal into asphalt under a project run by the United Nations that they hope will mark the first step towards the rehabilitation of their damaged cities.

The project, run by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), comes as progress has stalled on US President Donald Trump's Gaza plan, which is meant to build on an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire in October by increasing aid and rebuilding the territory from scratch.

It marks a bid by the U.N. and Palestinians to use locally available machinery to clear away the piles of rubble that officials say are blocking access to water wells and hospitals and complicating economic recovery.

Head of the UNDP office in Gaza Alessandro Mrakic said the region is facing one of the largest post-war clean-up challenges ever with an estimated 61 million tons of debris.

"In addition to collecting (the debris), we have started sorting, destroying, and thus reusing it," Mrakic explained, launching Al Arabiya from Reuters (28/4).

"We have used almost the same amount as we have collected," he said.

Mrakic further said that the UNDP team, consisting of Palestinian workers, used the rubble "to rehabilitate the road and pave the area for shelters and communal kitchens."

In Khan Younis, southern Gaza, Palestinians operated heavy machinery to demolish a pile of crumbled concrete, sending clouds of dust into the air as workers sorted through twisted steel and the debris of damaged buildings.

Progress was slowed by hazards hidden beneath the rubble, officials said.

Before the debris can be removed, the site must be checked to ensure there are no unexploded ordnance, in coordination with the UN mine service.

For Palestinian workers, the risks are real.

"I can't find another source of income, that's why I do this work. (You) can get hurt," said Ibrahim al Sarsawi (32).

He said the location of the workplace close to the Israel-Hamas ceasefire line meant he could be exposed to Israeli stray fire.

The clean-up of Gaza's rubble could take seven years to complete, the UNDP said, assuming accelerated and unhindered access to heavy equipment and consistent fuel supplies, which are generally scarce in Gaza under Israeli restrictions.

Israel cites security concerns as the reason for its restrictions in Gaza, where it launched an offensive after a Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

UNDP has so far cleared about 287,000 tons of debris. But, it is only "the tip of the iceberg," according to Mrakic.

Recovery and reconstruction in the Palestinian enclave will require $71.4 billion over the next decade, according to the latest Gaza Rapid Needs and Damage Assessment released this month by the European Union, United Nations, and World Bank.

"The war is over, but (this) is the beginning of a new war," said Sobhi Dawoud, 60, a Palestinian refugee living in a tent camp in Khan Younis.

"This new war," he added, is a war of "reconstruction, the beginning of cleaning up the rubble, and (repairing) infrastructure, electricity, water, sewage, schools, and roads."