War debris contains unexploded ordnance, harmful substances and bodies, according to a UN report.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) estimates that clearing the Gaza Strip of rubble left by Israel’s latest war on the Palestinian enclave will take 15 years.
The agency said Monday that the cleanup would require removing 40 million tons of rubble, citing an assessment by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
“The debris poses a deadly threat to residents of the Gaza Strip as it may contain unexploded ordnance and harmful substances,” UNRWA said, adding that removing it would require more than 100 trucks and cost more than $500 million.
It could take up to 15 years to clear around 40 million tonnes of war rubble #Gaza said @A PThe effort would require more than 100 trucks and cost more than $500 million.
The debris poses a deadly threat to people in the #Gaza strip because it may contain unexploded ordnance and harmful substances. pic.twitter.com/KNyvXlZ0hC
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 15, 2024
UNEP said some of the debris was contaminated with asbestos, a toxic mineral that causes lung diseases including cancer. It added that human remains were buried in a large amount of construction debris.
For comparison, during the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in 2014, approximately 2.4 million tons of debris were removed.
UNEP estimates that the amount of debris in the Gaza Strip is “13 times greater than the combined amount of debris generated by other conflicts in Gaza since 2008.”
More than nine months into Israel’s war on Gaza, large swathes of the enclave lie in ruins, due to a crippling blockade of food, drinking water and medicine.
Last month, Israeli Army Radio, citing military officials, said that about 50,000 bombs had been dropped on Gaza by Israeli warplanes since October 7, adding that 2,000 to 3,000 bombs had failed to explode.
In May, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimated that rebuilding homes in Gaza could take until 2040.
“The overall reconstruction of Gaza today, according to our estimates, will cost at least $40 billion to $50 billion,” said Abdallah al-Dardari, director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Arab States.
“We have not seen anything like this since 1945,” al-Dardari said.
Overall, the level of destruction is such that the UNDP estimates that the human development index in Gaza has regressed by 40 years.
The index assesses factors such as years of schooling, education level, health and life expectancy at birth.
“All the investments in human development… made in the last 40 years in Gaza have been wiped out,” Mr. al-Dardari said. “We are almost back to the 1980s.”