Gaza Development Put Back 60 Years by War, Says UNDP Chief

 A drone view shows Palestinian houses and buildings lying in ruins, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 22, 2025. (Reuters)
A drone view shows Palestinian houses and buildings lying in ruins, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 22, 2025. (Reuters)
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Gaza Development Put Back 60 Years by War, Says UNDP Chief

 A drone view shows Palestinian houses and buildings lying in ruins, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 22, 2025. (Reuters)
A drone view shows Palestinian houses and buildings lying in ruins, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 22, 2025. (Reuters)

The Israel-Hamas war has put back development in Gaza by 60 years and mobilizing the tens of billions of dollars needed for reconstruction will be an uphill task, the United Nations said.

Around two-thirds of all buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged, and removing the estimated 42 million tons of rubble will be dangerous and complex, the head of the UN Development Program told AFP.

"Probably between 65 percent to 70 percent of buildings in Gaza have either been entirely destroyed or damaged," Achim Steiner said in an interview at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos.

"But we're also talking about an economy that has been destroyed, where we estimate that roughly 60 years of development have been lost in this conflict over 15 months.

"Two million people who are in the Gaza Strip have lost not only their shelter: they've lost public infrastructure, sewage treatment systems, freshwater supply systems, public waste management. All of these fundamental infrastructure and service elements simply do not exist."

And for all these towering numbers, Steiner stressed: "Human desperation is not just something that you capture in statistics."

- 'Years and years' -

The fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza war took effect on Sunday.

Steiner said it was difficult to put a timeframe on reconstruction due to the "volatile" nature of the ceasefire, and because the UN's immediate focus is on life-saving aid.

"When we talk about reconstruction, we are not talking about one or two years here," he said.

"We are talking about years and years, until you even come close to rebuilding, first of all, the physical infrastructure, but it's also an entire economy.

"People had savings. People had loans. People had invested in businesses. And all of this is lost. So we are talking about the physical and economic, and in some ways even the psychosocial phase for reconstruction."

He said the physical reconstruction alone would cost "tens of billions of dollars", and "we do face an enormous uphill struggle on how to mobilize that scale of finance".

- 'Extraordinary' destruction -

The estimated volume of rubble may yet rise and will leave the reconstruction effort with vast challenges.

"This is not a simple undertaking of just loading it and transporting it somewhere. This rubble is dangerous. There are often still bodies that may not have been recovered. There's unexploded ordnance, landmines," Steiner explained.

"One option is recycling. With reconstruction, there is a significant degree to which you can recycle these materials and use them in the reconstruction process," Steiner said.

"The interim solution will be to move the rubble into temporary dumps and deposits from where it could then later be either taken for permanent processing or disposal."

In the meantime, if the ceasefire endures and firms up, Steiner said huge amounts of temporary infrastructure would be needed.

"Virtually every school and every hospital has been either severely damaged or destroyed," he said.

"It's an extraordinary physical destruction that has happened."



Bittersweet Homecoming for Gazans Returning to North

A displaced Palestinian child plays with a kitten in a car on Salah al-Din road in Nuseirat as people make their way to the northern part of the Gaza strip on January 28, 2025. (AFP)
A displaced Palestinian child plays with a kitten in a car on Salah al-Din road in Nuseirat as people make their way to the northern part of the Gaza strip on January 28, 2025. (AFP)
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Bittersweet Homecoming for Gazans Returning to North

A displaced Palestinian child plays with a kitten in a car on Salah al-Din road in Nuseirat as people make their way to the northern part of the Gaza strip on January 28, 2025. (AFP)
A displaced Palestinian child plays with a kitten in a car on Salah al-Din road in Nuseirat as people make their way to the northern part of the Gaza strip on January 28, 2025. (AFP)

Columns of Palestinians carrying what belongings they could headed to north Gaza on Tuesday for a second straight day, after Israel permitted their passage in accordance with an ongoing ceasefire.

"I'm happy to be back at my home," said Saif Al-Din Qazaat, who returned to northern Gaza but had to sleep in a tent next to the ruins of his house.

"I kept a fire burning all night near the kids to keep them warm... (They) slept peacefully despite the cold but we don’t have enough blankets," the 41-year-old told AFP.

On Monday, Israel allowed hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans to return to their homes in the north.

Although the crowds had thinned somewhat by Tuesday, thousands of men, women, and children were still seen heading north, fully aware they had little waiting for them but the rubble of their homes.

In central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp, children waved at Egyptian soldiers manning checkpoints along the route as vehicles laden with mattresses, bags and other belongings made their way north.

For many, the journey marked not just a return home but a confrontation with the harsh realities of more than 15 months of war in the densely populated territory of 2.4 million people.

Mona Abu Aathra managed to travel from central Gaza to Gaza City, though she has yet to assess the full extent of the war's impact on her home.

Her hometown, Beit Hanoun, was among the areas hardest hit by a months-long Israeli military operation which continued right up to this month's ceasefire.

"We returned to Gaza City with nothing, and there's no drinking water. Most streets are still blocked by the rubble of destroyed homes," the 20-year-old told AFP.

Despite the devastation, Abu Aathra expressed relief at being reunited with her family.

"It’s the first night we’re together again, me, my mother and my father. Last night, we gathered with my three brothers who were here in Gaza City."

The Hamas government press office said 300,000 people returned north on the first day of returns on Monday. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) put the figure at 200,000.

The returns had been due to begin on Saturday, but Israel delayed the start, accusing Hamas of reneging on the terms of the ceasefire by failing to include woman civilian Arbel Yehud among the Israeli hostages released at the weekend.

After Hamas agreed to release Yehud and two other hostages by Friday, Israel opened the corridor on Monday morning.

Mahmoud Kashko, who had decided not to return north on Monday, said he had been swept up in the collective momentum on Tuesday.

"I was hesitant to return to Gaza City, but when I saw hundreds of thousands of people coming back, I decided to return," he told AFP.

"I arrived at my home today. Of course, it's destroyed like most people's homes."

Others were still waiting to see how the ceasefire unfolds.

Another Gaza City resident, Hamouda al-Amsi, explained that his younger brother Amer and his family decided to remain in their tent at a displacement camp in the south.

"They don’t want to return to Gaza City yet because there are no houses, tents, water or food there," Amsi said.

"It's the same across the territory — there are no basic necessities for life."

Although aid deliveries have increased since the ceasefire began, the territory’s needs remain overwhelming.

The World Food Program said it distributed more food in the first four days of the ceasefire than in the entire month of December.

But OCHA said that those returning north would need other essential supplies too, like drinking water, shelter equipment and hygiene kits.

Amsi refused to be put off.

"We will rebuild our homes, and life will return to how it was before (the Hamas attack of) October 7, (2023)," he said confidently.