A UN report released Thursday warned that the reconstruction efforts of people’s houses bombed by the Israeli army in Gaza may take 80 years.
Seven months of Israeli genocidal war have resulted in the demolition of 8,000 houses, according to Palestinian data, with estimated infrastructure losses amount 3.3$ billions in Gaza.
Many of the densely populated concrete buildings were flattened to rubble, with a UN official referring to a “moonscape” of destruction.
The UN Development Programme said in a report that Gaza needs “approximately 80 years to restore all the fully destroyed housing units.” However, the reconstruction could be dine in 2040 if construction materials are delivered five times as fast as in the last crisis in 2021.
The UNDP assessment makes a series of projections on the war’s socioeconomic impact based on the duration of the current war, projecting decades of ongoing suffering.
“Unprecedented levels of human losses, capital destruction, and the steep rise in poverty in such a short period of time will precipitate a serious development crisis that jeopardises the future of generations to come,” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner in a statement.
Poverty is set to soar from 38.8% of Gaza’s population to 60.7% if the war lasts nine months, dragging a large portion of the middle class below the poverty line.
In April 26th, Israel’s military assault on Gaza has reduced much of the narrow, coastal territory of 2.3 million people to a wasteland with most civilians homeless, hungry and at risk of disease.
Senior officer at the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), Pehr Lodhammar, told a briefing in Geneva that the war had left an estimated 37 million tonnes of debris in the widely urbanised and densely populated enclave.
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