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Gaza's Huge Reconstruction Challenge: Key Facts and Figures

Palestinians remove the rubble of houses destroyed by Israeli strikes, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, September 4, 2024. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Palestinians remove the rubble of houses destroyed by Israeli strikes, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, September 4, 2024. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Gaza's Huge Reconstruction Challenge: Key Facts and Figures

Palestinians remove the rubble of houses destroyed by Israeli strikes, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, September 4, 2024. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Palestinians remove the rubble of houses destroyed by Israeli strikes, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, September 4, 2024. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Billions of dollars will be needed to rebuild Gaza when the war between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas ends, according to assessments from the United Nations.

Here is a breakdown of the destruction in Gaza from the conflict prompted by the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by militants led by the then Hamas rulers of the long-besieged Palestinian enclave, according to Reuters.

HOW MANY CASUALTIES ARE THERE?

The Hamas attack on Israel killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's retaliation has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians and injured around 95,000, according to the Gaza health ministry.

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO CLEAR THE RUBBLE?

The United Nations has warned that removing 40 million tonnes of rubble left in the aftermath of Israel's bombardment could take 15 years and cost between $500-600 million.

The debris is believed to be contaminated with asbestos and likely holds human remains. The Palestinian health ministry estimated in May that 10,000 bodies were missing under the rubble.

HOW MANY HOMES HAVE BEEN DESTROYED?

Rebuilding Gaza's shattered homes will take at least until 2040 but could drag on for many decades, according to a UN report released in May.

Palestinian data shows that about 80,000 homes have been destroyed in the conflict.

According to the United Nations, at least 1.9 million people across the Gaza Strip are internally displaced, including some uprooted more than 10 times. The pre-war population was 2.3 million.

WHAT IS THE INFRASTRUCTURE DAMAGE?

The estimated damage to infrastructure totals $18.5 billion, affecting residential buildings, commerce, industry, and essential services such as education, health, and energy, a UN-World Bank report said.

Gaza City has lost nearly all its water production capacity, with 88% of its water wells and 100% of its desalination plants damaged or destroyed, Oxfam said in a recent report.

HOW WILL GAZA FEED ITSELF?

More than half of Gaza's agricultural land, crucial for feeding the war-ravaged territory's hungry population, has been degraded by conflict, satellite images analysed by the United Nations show.

The data reveals a rise in the destruction of orchards, field crops and vegetables in the Palestinian enclave, where hunger is widespread after 11 months of Israeli bombardment.

WHAT ABOUT SCHOOLS, UNIVERSITIES, RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS?

A report from the Gaza Government Media Office in August enumerated the damage to public facilities. The conflict led to the destruction of 200 government facilities, 122 schools and universities, 610 mosques, and three churches.

Amnesty International's Crisis Evidence Lab has highlighted the extent of destruction along Gaza's eastern boundary. As of May 2024, over 90% of the buildings in this area, including more than 3,500 structures, were either destroyed or severely damaged.

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Rubble and Grief: Morocco’s High Atlas Marks One Year Since Record Earthquake

The rhythms of normal life have somewhat resumed in some of the province’s larger towns - The AP
The rhythms of normal life have somewhat resumed in some of the province’s larger towns - The AP
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Rubble and Grief: Morocco’s High Atlas Marks One Year Since Record Earthquake

The rhythms of normal life have somewhat resumed in some of the province’s larger towns - The AP
The rhythms of normal life have somewhat resumed in some of the province’s larger towns - The AP

The rescue crews and bystanders are long gone but the remnants of homes still sit in piles off to the side of the jagged roads.

A year after nearly 3,000 people died when a record earthquake shook communities throughout Morocco's High Atlas, it still looks like a bomb just went off in villages like Imi N'tala, where dozens of residents died after a chunk of mountainside cracked off and flattened the majority of buildings.

Broken bricks, bent rods of rebar and pieces of kitchen floors remain but have been swept into neater piles alongside plastic tents where the displaced now live. Some await funds to reconstruct their homes. Others await approval of their blueprints.

The region shaken by the earthquake is full of impoverished agricultural villages like Imi N’tala, accessible only via bumpy, unmaintained roads. Associated Press reporters revisited half a dozen of them last week ahead of the first anniversary.

In some places, residents who say they're awaiting governmental action have begun reconstructing buildings on an ad hoc basis. Elsewhere, people tired of the stuffiness of plastic tents have moved back into their cracked homes or decamped to larger cities, abandoning their old lives.

Streets have been neatly swept in towns like Amizmiz and Moulay Brahim, although cracked buildings and piles of rubble remain, much as they were in the days after the quake.

The rhythms of normal life have somewhat resumed in some of the province’s larger towns, where rebuilding efforts on roads, homes, schools and businesses are underway and some residents have been provided metal container homes. But many of those displaced from the more than 55,000 homes destroyed by the temblor remain vulnerable to summer’s heat and winter’s cold, living in plastic tents, impatient to return.

Mohamed Soumer, a 69-year-old retiree who lost his son in last year's earthquake, is angry because local authorities have forbidden him from rebuilding his home on the same steep mountainside due to safety concerns. He now spends his days with his wife in a plastic tent near his now-rubbled home and fears moving elsewhere and restarting his life in a larger, more expensive area.

“Residents want to stay here because they have land where they grow vegetables to make a living,” he said. “If they go somewhere else and abandon this place, they will not be able to live there.”

The government early on promised households monthly stipends in the aftermath of the earthquake and additional funds for seismically safe reconstruction. It said last week that both had been provided to the majority of eligible families and households.

“Specific solutions are being deployed on the ground for difficult cases,” Morocco's Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

But on the ground, its disbursal has been uneven, residents say, with many still waiting for funds or reconstruction to commence.

Anger has mounted against local authorities in towns like Amizmiz and villages like Talat N'Yaqoub, where residents have protested against their living conditions. They have criticized the slow pace of reconstruction and demanded more investment in social services and infrastructure, which has long gone neglected in contrast with Morocco's urban centers and coastline.

Officials have said rebuilding will cost 120 billion dirhams ($12 billion) and take about five years. The government has rebuilt some stretches of rural roads, health centers and schools but last week the commission tasked with reconstruction acknowledged the need to speed up some home rebuilding.