KHAN YUNIS: In the ruins of his two-storey home, 11-year-old Mohammed gathers chunks of the fallen roof into a broken pail and pounds them into gravel which his father will use to make gravestones for victims of the Gaza war. “We get the rubble not to build houses, no, but for tombstones and graves — from one misery to another,” his father, former construction worker Jihad Shamali, 42, says as he cuts through metal salvaged from their home in the southern city of Khan Younis, damaged during a Zionist raid in April. The work is hard, and at times grim. In March, the family built a tomb for one of Shamali’s sons, Ismail, killed while running household errands. But it is also a tiny part of the efforts starting to take shape to deal with the rubble left by the Zionist entity’s military offensive in Gaza.

The United Nations estimates there is over 42 million tons of debris, including both shattered edifices that are still standing and flattened buildings. That is 14 times the amount of rubble accumulated in Gaza between 2008 and the war’s start a year ago, and over five times the amount left by the 2016-17 Battle of Mosul in Iraq, the UN said. Piled up, it would fill the Great Pyramid of Giza — Egypt’s largest — 11 times. And it is growing daily. The UN is trying to help as Gazan authorities consider how to deal with the rubble, three U.N. officials said.

A UN-led Debris Management Working Group plans a pilot project with Palestinian authorities in Khan Younis and the central Gazan city of Deir Al-Balah to start clearing roadside debris this month. “The challenges are huge,” said Alessandro Mrakic, the Gaza Office head for the United Nations’ Development Programme (UNDP) which is co-chairing the working group. “It’s going to be a massive operation, but at the same time, it’s important that we start now.”

Asked about the debris, the Zionist military unit COGAT said it aimed to improve waste-handling and would work with the UN to expand those efforts. Mrakic said coordination with the Zionist entity was excellent but detailed discussions on future plans were yet to take place.

Tents amid the ruins

Wreckage is piled high above pedestrians and donkey carts on dusty narrow paths that were once busy roads. “Who is going to come here and clear the rubble for us? No-one. Therefore, we did that ourselves,” taxi driver Yusri Abu Shabab said, having cleared enough debris from his Khan Younis home to erect a tent. Two-thirds of Gaza’s pre-war structures — over 163,000 buildings — have been damaged or flattened, according to UN satellite data. Around a third were high-rise buildings.

Mrakic cited an unpublished preliminary estimate that it would cost $280 million to clear 10 million tons, implying around $1.2 billion if the war stopped now. A UN estimate from April suggested it would take 14 years to clear the rubble.

The debris contains unrecovered bodies, as many as 10,000 according to the Palestinian health ministry, and unexploded bombs, Mrakic said. The International Committee of the Red Cross says the threat is “pervasive” and UN officials say some of the debris poses a big injury risk. Nizar Zurub, from Khan Younis, lives with his son in a home where only a roof remains, hanging at a precarious angle.

The United Nations Environment Programme said an estimated 2.3 million tons of debris might be contaminated, citing an assessment of Gaza’s eight refugee camps, some of which have been hit. Asbestos fibers can cause larynx, ovarian and lung cancer when inhaled. Doctors fear a rise in cancers and birth defects from leaking metals in coming decades. Snake and scorpion bites and skin infections from sandflies are a concern, a UNEP spokesperson said.

Land and equipment shortages

Gaza’s rubble has previously been used to help build seaports. The UN hopes now to recycle a portion for road networks and bolstering the shoreline. Gaza, which had a pre-war population of 2.3 million crammed into an area 45 km (28 miles) long and 10 km wide, lacks the space needed for disposal, the UNDP says. Landfills are now in a Zionist military zone. The Zionist entity’s COGAT said they were in a restricted area but that access would be granted. More recycling means more money to fund equipment such as industrial crushers, Mrakic said. They would have to enter via crossing points controlled by the entity.

Government officials report fuel and machinery shortages because of Zionist restrictions that slow clear-up efforts. The UNEP spokesperson said prolonged approval processes were a “major bottleneck”. The Zionist entity did not specifically comment on allegations it was restricting machinery. The UNEP says it needs owners’ permission to remove debris, yet the scale of destruction has blurred property boundaries, and some property records have been lost during the war. — Reuters