Israeli bombings and terrestrial operations in Gaza have transformed whole districts into waste sunk with rubble, with straightened shells of buildings and debris mounds that extend in all directions.
The main roads were plowed. The critical infrastructures of water and electricity is in ruins. Most hospitals no longer work.
The United Nations indicates that it could take over 350 years to rebuild whether the blockade remains.
The complete extent of the damage will only be known when the fights end and the inspectors have full access to the territory.
The most strongly destroyed part of Gaza in the North had been sealed and widely depopulated by Israeli forces in an operation that started in early October.
Using satellite data, the United Nations estimated last month that 69% of the structures in Gaza were damaged or destroyed, including at least 245,000 houses.
The World Bank estimated $ 18.5 billion in damage – almost the combined economic production of the West Bank and Gaza in 2022 – for the first four months of the war.
Before everything can be rebuilt, the rubble must be deleted – an amazing task in itself.
The UN estimates that the war junmed Gaza with at least 50 million tonnes of rubble – about 12 times the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza. With more than 100 trucks working full time, it would take more than 15 years to clean the rubble, and there is little open space in the narrow coastal territory which houses some 2.3 million Palestinians.
