Rabat – As the Israeli Occupation Forces’ (IOF) continue their murderous campaign in Gaza, the Palestinian enclave is now burdened with more rubble than even the war-torn regions of Ukraine, the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) has revealed.
Mungo Birch, head of the UNMAS program in the Palestinian territories said that the besieged strip’s debris volume surpasses that of Ukraine despite Gaza’s significantly smaller geographical size.
“Gaza has more rubble than Ukraine, and to put that in perspective, the Ukrainian front line is 600 miles [nearly 1,000 kilometers] long, and Gaza is 25 miles [40 kilometers] long,” Birch said.
UNMAS estimated the amount of debris in Gaza at 37 million tonnes in mid-April, adding that cleanup efforts in Gaza are further complicated by the presence of unexploded ordnance (UXO) and hazardous materials like asbestos.
Birch highlighted the staggering presence of over 800,000 tonnes of asbestos, a cancer-causing mineral prevalent, in construction materials. Such hazardous substances demand specialized precautions and add complexity to the cleanup process.
Despite UNMAS’s securing initial funding of $5 million as part of its efforts to clean up Gaza, Birch emphasized the need for an additional $40 million to sustain operations over the next year.
However, addressing the aftermath of the war will require substantial resources over multiple years, with an estimated requirement in the hundreds of millions of US dollars.
“The sector as a whole will need hundreds of millions of US dollars over multiple years in order to make Gaza safe again for the population,” Birch added.
The devastating war in Gaza has left a trail of destruction, destroying critical infrastructure and laying waste to residential units, hospitals, and schools.
The toll on human lives has been profound, with over 34,500 fatalities among Palestinian civilians reported since the war began.
