Drone footage above Gaza City shows toll of 2 years of war

Gaza City, Oct 11 (AP) New drone footage shows what remains of Gaza City after two years of war and as a ceasefire holds in its second day.

The footage taken by The Associated Press on Saturday shows a few buildings still standing in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood. The rest appear to be gutted. Piles of debris rise well above the tops of vehicles. Roads are shrouded in concrete dust.

The footage also shows a few people out and about. They walk or drive among the ruins as tens of thousands of Palestinians make their way to what is left of their homes. Gaza City was the focus of Israel’s military offensive in the weeks before the ceasefire.

Some returning residents told the AP they were shocked by a new level of ruin.

“We did not expect this magnitude

of destruction,” said one, Farah Saleh.

“Is that what is left of Gaza? We are returning to no homes and no shelter for our kids, and winter is approaching,” said another, Shreen Aboul Yakhni.

Their clothing and possessions were rare spots of colour in the shattered landscape.

If the ceasefire holds, the toll of devastation will be better understood. Already, the United Nations Satellite Centre estimated that 83 per cent of all structures in Gaza City had been destroyed or had some damage by late September. It has been said that around 78 per cent of structures across all of Gaza had been destroyed or sustained damage by July.

The new drone footage helps put the scale of reconstruction into focus. Some 61 million tons of debris will need to be cleared across the territory — the equivalent of 25 Eiffel Towers by volume, according to the United Nations Environment Program.

Gaza’s vegetation, too, is largely dead. UNEP has said that 97 per cent of tree crops, 95 per cent of shrubs and 82 per cent of annual crops are gone.

Rebuilding Gaza will require more than USD 50 billion, the World Bank has estimated. The territory’s over 2 million Palestinians hope to begin now, one blanket or beam at a time. (AP) SKS SKS