By Adam Taylor and Adrián Blanco Ramos

February 6, 2025 

note: partial section of a longer report

About 90 percent of Gaza’s population was displaced during the war, crowding into a section of land along the coast under orders from the Israeli military. In the weeks since a ceasefire was reached between Israel and Hamas, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have returned to their bombed-out homes, with many vowing to rebuild.

The scale of the damage is undeniably immense. After almost 16 months of conflict, the territory is in a state of historic ruin. …..

…. U.N. disposal teams have discovered hundreds of unexploded ordnance since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023. These potentially deadly items include grenades, artillery shells and large aerial bombs — and their identification and disposal is a necessary first step before rubble can be cleared and the rebuilding can begin.

Only a handful of international disposal experts are operating in Gaza, but they say much of their work is hindered by a lack of equipment and staffing, caused in part by Israeli restrictions on what they can bring into the territory. They are prohibited from using explosives to destroy the ordnance; doing so is standard practice in most conflict zones.

They have also avoided working with local police, whose forces were targeted by Israel during the war. Some reports suggest police officers have carried out their own explosives removal. In some instances, international disposal experts have discovered unexploded ordnance, left the area and returned later to find the explosives removed.

“By who, we don’t know,” Elmont said.

Destruction and supplies

U.N. estimates made via satellite imagery suggest that more than 60 percent of the buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged since the start of the war. Critical infrastructure, including clinics, universities and water treatment plants, are in rubble.

Uncertain costs, future

The United Nations estimates that rebuilding Gaza to its prewar state could cost $80 billion, and it is unclear which countries will foot the bill.

Rajagopal, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, said that in some ways, the situation in Gaza is similar to that in Tokyo in 1945, where well over a million people were left homeless after Allied firebombing attacks at the end of World War II. But the rebuilding there was completed in less than a decade and did not include the mass displacement of the city’s population.

There were two main factors, Rajagopal added. First, the war had clearly ended for good. And second, “the American occupation in Tokyo actually had the policy of assisting the local population to return and to rebuild.”

“They contributed an enormous amount of resources to it,” he said.

Taylor reported from Washington and Ramos from Madrid.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/02/06/gaza-uninhabitable-bombs/