{"id":49375,"date":"2026-04-27T18:00:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T18:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=49375"},"modified":"2026-04-27T18:00:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T18:00:30","slug":"palestinians-use-gaza-rubble-to-restore-streets-as-us-rebuilding-plan-stalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=49375","title":{"rendered":"Palestinians use Gaza rubble to restore streets as US rebuilding plan stalls"},"content":{"rendered":"
Palestinians are using \u200bwar rubble to repave streets destroyed during Israel’s two-year assault on Gaza, crushing concrete and metal into pavement under \u200ca UN-run project they hope will mark a first step toward rehabilitating their damaged cities.<\/p>\n

The project run by the United Nations Development Programme comes as progress stalls in United States President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan, meant to build on an October Israel-Hamas ceasefire by surging aid and rebuilding the enclave from \u200bscratch.<\/p>\n

It marks a bid by the UN and Palestinians to use locally available machinery to clear mountains of rubble \u200bthat officials say is blocking access to water wells and hospitals and making it difficult to \u2060get the economy going again.<\/p>\n

Crushing and reusing rubble <\/p>\n

Alessandro Mrakic, head of UNDP’s Gaza office, said the territory faces one of \u200bthe largest post-war clearance challenges in memory, with an estimated 61 million tonnes of rubble.<\/p>\n

“Beyond the collection [of rubble], we have started sorting, \u200bwe have started crushing, and, as such, reusing it,” Mrakic said. “We have used almost the same amount that we have collected.”<\/p>\n

Mrakic said UNDP teams, staffed by Palestinian workers, were using the rubble “to rehabilitate roads and pave areas for shelter and community kitchens”.<\/p>\n

In Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Palestinians \u200bwere operating heavy machinery to tear through mountains of destroyed concrete, sending plumes of dust into the air as workers picked \u200bthrough the twisted steel and rubble of damaged buildings.<\/p>\n

Progress is being slowed by dangers hidden beneath the debris, officials say. Before rubble can be \u200cremoved, \u2060sites must be checked for unexploded ordnance, in coordination with the UN’s mine service.<\/p>\n

For Palestinian workers, the risks are tangible.<\/p>\n

“I can’t find any other source of income, that is why I do this work. [You]\u00a0could get hurt,” said Ibrahim al\u2011Sarsawi, 32.<\/p>\n

He said the work site’s location near the Israel-Hamas armistice line meant he could be exposed to stray Israeli fire.<\/p>\n

Just the ‘tip of the iceberg\u2019<\/p>\n

Gaza rubble \u200bclearance could take seven years \u200bto complete, UNDP says, assuming \u2060accelerated, unimpeded access for heavy machinery and consistent fuel supplies, which are generally scarce in Gaza under Israeli restrictions.<\/p>\n

Israel cites security concerns for its restrictions in Gaza, where it launched its assault \u200bfollowing Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

UNDP has so far removed about 287,000 \u200btons of rubble,\u00a0\u2060but that is just the “tip of the iceberg”, according to Mrakic.<\/p>\n

Recovery and reconstruction in the tiny territory will require $71.4 billion over the next decade, according to a final Gaza Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment released this month by the European Union, United Nations\u00a0and World \u2060Bank.<\/p>\n

“The war \u200bis over, but [this]\u00a0is the beginning of a new war,” said Sobhi Dawoud, \u200b60, a displaced Palestinian living in a tent encampment in Khan Younis.<\/p>\n

This “new war”, he added, is one “of reconstruction, the beginning of removing the rubble\u00a0and [fixing]\u00a0infrastructure, electricity, \u200bwater, sewage, schools\u00a0and streets.”<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Palestinians are using \u200bwar rubble to repave streets destroyed during Israel’s two-year assault on Gaza, crushing concrete and metal into pavement under \u200ca UN-run project they hope will mark a first step toward rehabilitating their damaged cities. The project run by the United Nations Development Programme comes as progress stalls in United States President Donald […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}