Rebuilding Gaza will take ‘a lot of time’, UN official says

A UN official in Gaza has warned that the reconstruction process in the devastated Palestinian territory will “take an enormous amount of time” despite increased humanitarian deliveries promised under a ceasefire and liberation deal hostages between Israel and Hamas.

“We’re not just talking about food, health care, buildings, roads, infrastructure. We have individuals, families, communities that need to be rebuilt,” said Sam Rose, director by interim of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). Gaza, told the BBC.

More than 630 humanitarian trucks entered Gaza, including at least 300 heading north, after the ceasefire took effect on Sunday. Mr Rose said he hoped the same number, or even more, would enter on Monday.

The trucks brought desperately needed food, tents, blankets, mattresses and winter clothing that had been stranded outside Gaza for months.

The ceasefire agreement would require 600 aid trucks, including 50 carrying fuel, to be allowed into Gaza each day during the first phase which will last six weeks, during which Hamas is expected to release 33 hostages Israelis in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.

“We’re expecting a significant increase in the volume of aid coming in, and of course it’s a lot easier for us to go and get that aid because many of the problems we’ve faced so far during “war will disappear when the fighting stops,” Mr. Rose said.

“We are no longer crossing an active conflict zone. We no longer need to coordinate all these movements with the Israeli authorities,” he added. “And we haven’t faced any major problems today with looting and crime.”

But he also stressed that “we must stop considering the needs of the people of Gaza based on the volume of aid.”

“Everyone in Gaza was traumatized by what happened. Everyone lost something. Most of these houses are now destroyed, most of the roads are destroyed,” he added. “It’s going to be a very long process of rehabilitation and reconstruction.”

World Health Organization regional director Hanan Balkhy said she has a 60-day plan to get Gaza’s health system back on track to meet the urgent needs of the population. and prioritize the care of the thousands of people suffering from life-changing injuries.

The plan includes repairing Gaza’s hospitals – half of which are out of service and the rest only partially functional – establishing temporary clinics in the hardest-hit areas, combating malnutrition and controlling epidemics.

On Sunday evening, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher warned that the humanitarian needs of Palestinians in Gaza were “staggering”.

U.N. officials have previously blamed the humanitarian crisis on Israeli military restrictions on aid deliveries, hostilities and the breakdown of law and order.

Israel has insisted there is no limit to the amount of aid that can be delivered to and through Gaza and accuses U.N. agencies of failing to distribute the supplies. It also accuses Hamas of stealing the aid, which the group denies.

The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. Israel says 91 of the hostages remain in captivity.

Since then, more than 47,000 people have been killed and 111,000 injured in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have also been repeatedly displaced, 60% of buildings are believed to be damaged or destroyed, health, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed and it There are serious shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter. .

In October, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) estimated that 1.84 million people in Gaza were experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity, and 133,000 people were facing high levels of acute food insecurity. catastrophic, potentially leading to famine and death.

The following month, an IPC committee warned that there was a high probability that famine was “imminent” in parts of northern Gaza.

Before the ceasefire, the UN said the besieged towns of Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun in the north of the country had been largely cut off from food aid since the Israeli army launched a ground offensive in October with the stated aim of preventing a resurgence of Hamas.

A Palestinian woman who returned to her destroyed home in northern Gaza on Monday after the ceasefire took effect expressed shock at what she discovered after Israeli soldiers withdrew.

“The whole place looked like it had been hit by an earthquake because of the severity of the aggression,” Manal Abu al-Dragham told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Today programme.

“I will pitch my tent in the north, whatever the cost…I do not want to be displaced from my land again.”

Mr. Rose said UNRWA teams in southern Gaza, where he is based, had not yet been able to cross the border into northern Gaza because the Israeli army had not yet opened borders. routes through the east-west corridor of Netzarim.

But he added that UNRWA, as the largest humanitarian organization in Gaza, had the networks and people on the ground who could help if given access.

However, UNRWA faces imminent Israeli bans that could make its operations in Gaza impossible.

Two laws passed by the Israeli parliament, due to take effect next week, will ban the agency from operating on Israeli territory and prevent Israeli state agencies from communicating with it.

Israel accused UNRWA of being complicit with Hamas and said 18 of its employees took part in the October 7 attack. The agency fired nine employees it said could be involved according to a U.N. investigation and stressed its commitment to neutrality.

The UN said UNRWA was irreplaceable in Gaza while the agency’s commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, said its thousands of Palestinian employees in Gaza would “stay and act” if the Israeli government implemented both laws , although it would “come at some point”. a considerable personal risk” for them.