Monday | 7 October 2024 | Reg No- 06
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Monday | 7 October 2024 | Epaper
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After a year of war, Gazans wonder how to deal with tonnes of rubble

Published : Monday, 7 October, 2024 at 12:00 AM  Count : 104
KHAN YOUNIS, Oct 6:  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 an Israeli 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 Israel's military campaign to eliminate Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The United Nations estimates there is over 42 million tonnes 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 U.N. said.

Piled up, it would fill the Great Pyramid of Giza - Egypt's largest - 11 times. And it is growing daily.

The U.N. is trying to help as Gazan authorities consider how to deal with the rubble, three U.N. officials said.

A U.N.-led Debris Management Working Group plans a pilot project with Palestinian authorities in Khan Younis and the central Gazan city of Deir El-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."

Israel's military has said Hamas fighters hide among civilians and that it will strike them wherever they emerge, while also trying to avoid harming civilians.

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

Israel began its offensive after Hamas militants entered Israel on Oct. 7 last year, killed about 1,200 Israelis and took over 250 people hostage.    —REUTERS



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