E-Paper
Gaza Sits Under 68 Million Tons of Rubble. A Look at the Daunting Task Ahead.
One way to measure the scale of the damage: If the debris were spread over Manhattan, there would be 215 pounds on every square foot.
The war in Gaza has reduced much of the enclave to rubble, with most of its buildings either destroyed or damaged. Clearing it to pave the way for rebuilding will be a gargantuan task that is expected to take years and cost over a billion dollars.
Thousands of Israeli airstrikes, along with fighting on the ground and controlled demolitions, have destroyed more than 123,000 buildings in the Gaza Strip and left an additional 75,000 damaged to varying degrees, accounting for 81% of all the structures in the enclave, according to the latest review of satellite images by the United Nations.
That has generated about 68 million tons of debris, according to the U.N. Development Program, which is overseeing rubble removal in Gaza. That is equivalent to the weight of around 186 Empire State Buildings. Distributing that amount of rubble evenly across Manhattan would leave around 215 pounds of debris on every square foot.
The rubble is mixed with unexploded ordnance—the bombs, missiles, rocket and artillery projectiles that failed to detonate. There are also human remains—the bodies of some 10,000 people which remain trapped beneath the rubble, according to Palestinian health authorities.
The work to remove the rubble can only begin in earnest if Israeli authorities allow into Gaza heavy machinery and equipment needed to move debris and destroy unexploded ordnance.
That is unlikely to happen until Hamas and Israel reach an agreement on the second phase of a peace plan outlined by President Trump. Those talks are currently gridlocked, as Hamas is refusing to disarm and disagreements persist on who will eventually control the enclave.
Meanwhile, the living conditions for Gaza’s more than 2 million residents remain dire. Most Palestinians are staying in tents pitched in overcrowded camps for the displaced and rubble-strewn streets. The onset of winter has worsened conditions, with heavy rains flooding camps.
Once the rubble removal process begins, it will take a long time. “One hopes that it will happen as quickly as possible, but it will take years,” said Jaco Cilliers, who heads UNDP’s operations in the Palestinian territories. “The best-case scenario is that it will take at least five, more like seven years.”
How long, exactly, will depend on funding, Israel’s willingness to allow the necessary equipment into Gaza and the political will on both sides to keep the cease-fire in place.
In Gaza, there are currently nine working excavators, 67 wheel loaders, equipped with buckets, 75 dump trucks and one functioning crusher, a machine that is essential to turn rubble into reusable construction material, according to UNDP. That is what is left of the equipment in Gaza before the war, some of which was destroyed in the fighting.
A lot more machinery needs to enter Gaza to meet UNDP’s best-case scenario.
The U.N. has requested permission from Israel to bring in 120 dump trucks, 80 wheel loaders, 20 excavators and more crushers to scale up the work.
Israel controls security screenings at crossings and decides what is allowed to enter Gaza. Israel considers heavy machinery dual-use equipment, meaning it could be used for military purposes.
Israel points to the use of construction equipment to build Hamas’ extensive network of underground tunnels, the group’s most valuable strategic asset in the war.
The U.S.-run Civil-Military Coordination Center, established in Israel to monitor the cease-fire and coordinate aid to Gaza, is helping make plans for rubble removal as part of the reconstruction process.
U.S. officials say they have some leverage on what Israel allows into Gaza, but Israeli authorities have final say.
Building contractors in Gaza who own heavy machinery charge about $23 a ton to remove debris. It’s unclear who will pay for it.
The U.S. is hoping Arab Gulf states will foot a big part of the overall reconstruction bill, which the U.N. estimates will be around $70 billion. No agreement has been reached.
UNDP began clearing rubble roughly a year ago with the limited equipment it had, stopping the work whenever the fighting intensified. So far, around 209,000 tons of debris have been collected and recycled or repurposed.
The current priority is to facilitate humanitarian activities by clearing roads and enabling easier access to hospitals, bakeries and temporary schools.
“This is the very tip of the iceberg,” said Alessandro Mrakic, who heads the UNDP office in Gaza. “We will find more and more unexploded ordnance in the future as we enter homes.”
Some Gazans are taking the matter in their own hands. Abdullah al-Hindawi recently returned to his family home in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City to discover it had been destroyed by Israeli forces days before the cease-fire took hold.
“We tried clearing the rubble ourselves, but it was too difficult,” Hindawi said. “The entire street, it’s just piles of debris, and everything is mixed together—you can’t tell whose house is whose anymore.”
He returned to a tent he shares with his family in the town of Deir al Balah.
Reem Ajjour, 25, fled her home in Gaza City in March 2024, leaving her husband and young daughter behind. Their three-story home collapsed soon after. She hasn’t heard from them since.
“We need an excavator or bulldozer to remove the debris, so I can search for my husband and daughter,” Ajjour said. “I have no other option left but to look for their bodies.”
Removing small quantities of rubble can have a big impact. Around 270 roads were reopened over the past year, with vendors setting up roadside stalls selling fresh vegetables and other food. The drive between Deir al Balah and Gaza City now takes 30 minutes, down from an hour and a half a couple of months ago, said Mohammed Mezyad, who oversees day-to-day rubble removal in Gaza on behalf of UNDP.
Every week, several people—many of them children—are injured by remnants of war, according to medical and humanitarian workers.
There are no accurate estimates about how many pieces of ordnance litter the Gaza Strip today, but they are likely in the thousands, according to demining experts, mostly inside private homes.
An Israeli military official said in January that 1% to 2% of the ordnance it used in the enclave may have failed to explode. The Israeli military declined to provide updated estimates.
The U.N.’s Mine Action Service has so far encountered hundreds of remnants of war. Since they lack specialized equipment, its workers mark and cordon off the explosive items.
“Over the past two years we have not been able to clear any explosive ordnance in Gaza,” said Julius Van der Walt of UNMAS. “We require authorization from Israeli authorities to import specific technical equipment and supplies. At present, this clearance has not been granted.”
Once cleared and collected, the debris is carried to recycling sites in the enclave where it is divided between items that can be reused and those that can’t. Furniture and personal belongings are returned to owners when possible. Hazardous materials such as asbestos, broken fittings and other non-recyclable items are disposed of separately.
Much of the rest can be recycled. Concrete is crushed and then used as fill material for road building, landscaping and non-load-bearing walls. Some of it has already been put to use in the foundations of a new field kitchen run by the charity World Central Kitchen in Khan Younis. But there is so much debris that even experts are struggling to figure out what to do with it.
“We are looking for innovative solutions,” said Mrakic of UNDP.
Write to Margherita Stancati at margherita.stancati@wsj.com and Emma Brown at Emma.Brown@wsj.com
One Subscription.
Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines
to 100 year archives.
HT App & Website
