BETHLEHEM- Ma’an- It will take a fleet of 100 trucks more than 15 years to clear Gaza of rubble. According to UN estimates, Gaza is covered with more than 40 million tons of rubble, and the removal will cost about $600 million.

The United Nations also estimates that 137,297 buildings have been damaged in the Gaza Strip since the outbreak of the war, more than half of the Strip’s buildings.

About a quarter of it was completely destroyed, and a tenth was severely damaged. The huge rubble covers up to five square kilometers of the Strip. It is estimated that most of the artifacts will not be recyclable, so they will have to be disposed of.

In May, the United Nations estimated that rebuilding all homes destroyed in the Gaza Strip would take until 2040 and cost about $40 billion, describing this as an ‘optimistic estimate.’

Schools, medical infrastructure, roads, sewage and vital infrastructure were also damaged. The United Nations also reported that the quality of health care, education and social care servic
es in the Gaza Strip had returned to 1980 levels. According to the UN report, 44 years of development in the Gaza Strip have been erased.

‘The damage to infrastructure is unbelievable, there is not a single building in Khan Younis that has not been damaged,’ said a UN official. ‘The terrain has changed, new hills have appeared.’ The bombs dropped have changed the landscape. It was also noted that piles of rubble across the Gaza Strip are filled with unexploded bombs and other explosive materials, which will make the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip an even more difficult task.

Source: Maan News Agency