How can such a vast mass of debris be dealt with? This is not just building materials shattered and pulverised during two years of uninterrupted bombing using 500-2,000 pound bunker busters. Buried beneath it lie unexploded ordnance, toxic substances resulting from chemical reactions between medical substances from the dozens of hospitals Israel destroyed and other chemical substances left to accumulate over months. Also beneath it all lie unknown numbers of rotting corpses – the overwhelming majority of them Palestinian women, children, and elderly. Where does one even begin to clear this unfathomable quantity of destruction?
Not a single building in Gaza has been left standing. Even Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Trump and a staunch supporter of Israel, admitted in a recent televised interview that he was stunned by the scale of the devastation. He said it looked like a nuclear bomb had exploded in Gaza.
A Turkish company specialising in demolition clearance has reportedly offered to undertake the work in Gaza, but the Israeli authorities refused. Yet I doubt that any company has ever had to deal with such an unprecedented quantity of debris mixed with hazardous materials – some chemical, some organic.
Perhaps the best approach to managing this colossal mass of rubble would be the one adopted by countries like the Netherlands, Singapore and Japan, which mixed the debris with cement and dumped it along their coastlines, thereby expanding their land area into the sea. Without a doubt, Gaza desperately needs more land. With a coastline running 41 kilometres from north to south and an average width of roughly 8.8 kilometres, it covers only 360 square kilometres, making it one of the most densely populated places on earth.
Will Israel abide by its obligations under the agreement it signed in Sharm El-Sheikh? Or will it obstruct reconstruction efforts, just as it is once again blocking the entry of vital humanitarian relief?
* A version of this article appears in print in the 6 November, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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