Bloomberg: 42 million tons of rubble in Gaza would require a fleet of trucks stretching from New York to Singapore to remove!
The ongoing war on the Gaza Strip has killed and injured tens of thousands of Palestinians, destroyed homes and buildings there, and created more than 42 million tons of debris across the Strip, enough to fill a line of garbage trucks stretching from New York to Singapore.
According to the United Nations, Israeli airstrikes have left more than 42 million tons of rubble across the Gaza Strip, enough to fill a line of garbage trucks stretching from New York to Singapore.
Clearing this amount of destruction will take years and cost at least $700 million, with unexploded bombs, dangerous contaminated materials and the remains of victims trapped in the rubble posing challenges.
Bloomberg reported that most of the rubble is from destroyed homes, as in Khan Younis alone, at least 8.5 million tons of rubble will have to be removed.
In Gaza City, which is located in the north of the Strip, the extent of the destruction there constitutes more than half of the debris in the Strip.
Rebuilding Gaza would require a complete overhaul of the entire infrastructure, and reconstruction cannot be separated from Gaza’s future political shape.
Finding places to dispose of the debris is also a challenge.
According to Daniel Eagle, an economist at the Rand Corporation, a think tank, rebuilding Gaza could cost more than $80 billion, and it’s not yet known who will pay for it.
On August 12, a meeting in Ramallah concluded that a plan should be put in place now to remove the rubble, to be implemented after the end of the aggression on Gaza, Minister of Public Works and Housing Ahed Bseiso told the press.
He added that the Palestinian Authority’s plan is to dismantle all unexploded ordnance once it gets the green light to begin reconstruction.
More than 70% of Gaza’s housing has been damaged so far since the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023.
Aid agencies say most of the Gaza Strip’s 2.2 million residents have been displaced, crammed into a small strip of land along the Mediterranean coast, largely cut off from fresh water and food, as well as basic medicine and sanitation.
