{"id":124918,"date":"2026-04-28T08:47:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T03:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=124918"},"modified":"2026-04-28T08:47:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T03:47:25","slug":"palestinians-use-war-rubble-to-restore-shattered-gaza-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124918\/","title":{"rendered":"Palestinians use war rubble to restore shattered Gaza streets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>GAZA(National Times)- Palestinians are using war rubble to repave streets destroyed during\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1995319\">Israel\u2019s assault on Gaza<\/a>, crushing concrete and metal into pavement under a UN-run project they hope will mark a first step toward rehabilitating their damaged cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The project run by the United Nations Development Programme comes as progress stalls in US President Donald Trump\u2019s Gaza plan, meant to build on an October Israel-Hamas&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1947576\">ceasefire<\/a>&nbsp;by surging aid and rebuilding the enclave from scratch. It marks a bid by the UN and Palestinians to use locally available machinery to clear mountains of rubble that officials say is blocking access to water wells and hospitals and making it difficult to get the economy going again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Crushing and reusing rubble<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alessandro Mrakic, head of UNDP\u2019s Gaza office, said the territory faces one of the largest post-war clearance challenges in memory with an estimated 61 million tons of rubble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBeyond the collection [of rubble], we have started sorting, we have started crushing, and, as such, reusing it,\u201d Mrakic said. \u201cWe have used almost the same amount that we have collected.\u201d Mrakic said UNDP teams, staffed by Palestinian workers, were using the rubble \u201cto rehabilitate roads and pave areas for shelter and community kitchens\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, Palestinians were operating heavy machinery to tear through mountains of destroyed concrete, sending plumes of dust into the air as workers picked through the twisted steel and rubble of damaged buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Progress is being slowed by dangers hidden beneath the debris, officials say. Before rubble can be removed, sites must be checked for unexploded ordnance, in coordination with the UN\u2019s mine service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Palestinian workers, the risks are tangible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t find any other source of income, that is why I do this work. [You] could get hurt,\u201d said Ibrahim al-Sarsawi, 32. He said the work site\u2019s location near the Israel-Hamas armistice line meant he could be exposed to stray Israeli fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2018Tip of the iceberg\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gaza rubble clearance could take seven years to complete, UNDP says, assuming accelerated, unimpeded access for heavy machinery and consistent fuel supplies, which are generally scarce in Gaza under Israeli restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Israel cites security concerns for its restrictions in Gaza, where it launched its assault following Hamas-led raid on October 7, 2023. The UNDP has so far removed about 287,000 tons of rubble \u2014 but that is just the \u201ctip of the iceberg\u201d, according to Mrakic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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, and World Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe war is over, but [this] is the beginning of a new war,\u201d said Sobhi Dawoud, 60, a displaced Palestinian living in a tent encampment in Khan Yunis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This \u201cnew war\u201d, he added, is one \u201cof reconstruction, the beginning of removing the rubble, and [fixing] infrastructure\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GAZA(National Times)- Palestinians are using war rubble to repave streets destroyed during\u00a0Israel\u2019s assault on Gaza, crushing concrete and metal into pavement under a 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 US President Donald Trump\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest_news","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Palestinians use war rubble to restore shattered Gaza streets - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124918\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Palestinians use war rubble to restore shattered Gaza streets - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"GAZA(National Times)- Palestinians are using war rubble to repave streets destroyed during\u00a0Israel\u2019s assault on Gaza, crushing concrete and metal into pavement under a UN-run project they hope will mark a first step toward rehabilitating their damaged cities. 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