The Ministry of Public Works in Gaza has reported that more than a quarter of a million housing units have been completely or partially destroyed in the year-long genocide, and are now uninhabitable.
In a press statement on Monday, the ministry said that over 80 per cent of the roads have been completely destroyed and need to be rebuilt.
These figures demonstrate the extent of the widespread destruction inflicted on Gaza’s infrastructure and highlight the enormous challenges that will face the reconstruction process in the future.
Earlier, United Nations housing expert Balakrishnan Rajagopal confirmed that the brutality of the destruction in Gaza has not been seen in previous conflicts, whether in Ukraine or Syria.
He explained in a press statement that by January 2024, between 60 and 70 per cent of all homes in Gaza had been destroyed, with the rate in North Gaza reaching 82 per cent.
But, he said: ‘The situation is much worse now, especially in the north, where the destruction rate is nearing 100%,’ noting that a recent report from the United Nations Development Programme estimated that as of May, there were more than 39 million tons of debris in Gaza.
‘The rubble is mixed with unexploded ordnance, toxic waste, asbestos from collapsed buildings, and other materials,’ Rajagopal added, and ‘groundwater pollution and soil contamination have reached a catastrophic level, to the extent that we do not know if they can be treated in time for people to return, at least within this generation.’
Since October 7th, 2023, the Israeli occupation, with full American support, has been waging a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, resulting in over 142,000 killed and wounded, the majority of whom are women and children, along with 10,000 still missing under the rubble and in the streets, because Israeli occupation forces prevent rescue teams from reaching them.
Apart from the massive destruction of infrastructure there is a deadly famine.
This assault is accompanied by cuts to communications and the internet, isolating 200,000 people from the outside world.
Activists and supporters of the Palestinian cause have responded to calls to surround Israeli and American embassies in order to force the occupying authorities to halt the ongoing genocide.
Israeli occupation forces have been using heavy firepower in northern Gaza for the last two weeks, amidst killings, destruction, displacement, starvation, and direct targeting of hospitals in the widest ethnic cleansing operation and acts of genocide since the war began.
At least 500 people have been killed in the last two weeks alone.
- 29 Palestinian citizens, including children, were killed and others were injured in five new massacres carried out by the Israeli occupation army in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, which included direct execution of displaced persons, shelling of civilian gatherings, targeting a house in Gaza City, and a school housing displaced persons in Beit Hanoun.
Medical sources reported that seven people were killed and wounded as a result of artillery shelling targeting displaced persons inside a school near the Abu Rashid Pool in Jabalia camp.
Eyewitnesses said that the occupation forces who invaded the camp forced the displaced people besieged in Kreizm school – which is run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) – to gather and leave it.
But as they gathered at the gate to leave, the occupation artillery fired a shell directly at them killing at least seven and injuring dozens more.
In addition, six people, including children, were killed and others injured with varying degrees in an occupation raid that targeted a gathering of citizens while they were trying to collect drinking water in the town of Jabalia.
In Jabalia camp, four civilians were killed in an airstrike launched by an occupation drone on a group of citizens near al-Yaman Al-Saeed hospital.
In Gaza City, nine citizens were killed and dozens were injured in an occupation bombing that targeted a house belonging to the Maqat family behind Sheikh Radwan pond north of the city.
Three citizens were also killed and others injured in an occupation bombing that targeted the Ghazi Al-Shawa school, which houses displaced people in the town of Beit Hanoun, north of the Strip.
The sources said that at least 41 people have been killed in the occupation raids on the Gaza Strip since dawn on Monday alone, 33 of them in the north of the Strip.
On October 6th, the occupation forces began a ground aggression north of the Gaza Strip, besieged the entire area and prevented the entry of water, food and medical supplies.
Local health authorities confirmed that the Palestinian death toll from the Israeli onslaught since October 7th has risen to 42,603 reported fatalities, with an additional 99,759 individuals sustaining injuries. The majority of the victims are women and children.
According to the same sources, emergency services are still unable to reach many casualties and dead bodies trapped under the rubble or scattered on roads across the war-torn enclave, as Israeli occupation forces continue to obstruct the movement of ambulance and civil defence crews.
- The media officer at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Enas Hamdan said that Israel rejected an urgent request submitted by the agency to evacuate those trapped under the rubble as a result of the genocide in the northern Gaza Strip.
He issued a statement earlier on Monday reporting that famine is worsening in the northern Gaza Strip due to the Israeli genocide and the policy of ethnic cleansing that the Palestinian civilians there are being subjected to.
The UN official said: ‘Over the past two weeks, we have repeatedly warned that the tightening of the siege on Jabalia and the northern governorate in general is making the situation even more catastrophic, and the ongoing Israeli military operations are putting tens of thousands of civilians in imminent danger.
‘Moreover, the military offensive in northern Gaza is cutting people off from the necessities they need to survive, including water,’ she added.
Hamdan warned that ‘Jabalia camp has been under siege for more than two weeks, and we are receiving information about families trapped in their homes, with water and food running out, and images coming from the camp show residents running for their lives, with no safe place to go.’
Meanwhile in the occupied West Bank on Monday, at his office in Ramallah, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa received a visit from Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.
They discussed the latest developments regarding the ongoing aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, especially in the northern part.
Mustafa stressed during the meeting, in the presence of Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Wael Zaqout, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Fareseen Shaheen, and Italian Consul General Domenico Bellato, that the continuation of the killing, destruction and starvation machine in the Gaza Strip will not bring peace to Israel.
The Prime Minister said he appreciated the Italian efforts pushing for a ceasefire stability in the region, and ‘extended thanks for the continuous Italian support for Palestine and the recent support for UNRWA,’ in addition to directing a new batch of Italian aid to the Gaza Strip via Jordan.
He reviewed the efforts made and contacts at all levels to stop the aggression in the Strip and find mechanisms to implement the decision of the United Nations General Assembly based on the advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice.
Mustafa called for pressure to be put on Israel to stop deductions from Palestinian tax revenues and release the withheld funds, in addition to the importance of Italy’s recognition of the State of Palestine and supporting a new wave of recognition of the Palestinian state.
- In a statement on Sunday, the Hamas Movement denounced the international silence on the Israeli occupation’s implementation of the so-called the ‘Generals’ Plan,’ calling on the international community to take urgent action to stop the ongoing massacres against Palestinian civilians in the northern Gaza Strip.
‘The suspicious international silence on the Israeli implementation of the ‘Generals’ Plan’ is an actual participation in the crime, and the international community must take urgent action to stop the ongoing massacres against our people in the northern Gaza Strip,’ the statement read.
The Movement stressed that the ‘Generals’ Plan’ is a ‘complete recipe for genocide’ and a ‘criminal forced displacement operation that pursues ethnic cleansing, massacres, and starvation.
‘The silence of the international community on this crime raises big question marks and amounts to complicity in the crime of the century against civilians, including children, women, and the elderly.’