STORY: Palestinians are using war rubble to repave streets in Gaza.
A project run by the United Nations Development Program crushes concrete and salvages scrap metal in a step toward rehabilitating the war-shattered territory.
"In Gaza, we are dealing with an unprecedented volume of rubble. We are talking about 61 million tonnes..."
Alessandro Mrakic oversees UNDP's Gaza office. He says it's one of the largest post-war clearance challenges in memory.
He said the program has already collected some 287,000 metric tonnes, but calls that just the tip of the iceberg.
The effort comes as progress stalls in U.S. President Donald Trump's Gaza plan.
Trump had meant to build on an October ceasefire by surging aid and rebuilding the enclave from scratch.
But clearing the rubble is a vital step in getting more aid into Gaza.
"Debris is basically stopping, blocking access to water wells, to primary health centers, to hospitals, to restart the basic economy at the local level."
Ibrahim al-Sarsawi told Reuters he is glad for the work. He gets paid at the end of the week and can buy food for his children in what he calls a lawful way.
He says there are two threats: the sun, and stray fire from Israeli forces.
And there is a third risk left by the war potentially hidden in the rubble that slows the recovery:
MRAKIC: "Before removing any small quantity of debris, we are assessing the risk and the potential presence of unexploded ordnance. This is still today one of the main bottlenecks, also for us to remove debris, as the explosive ordnance management is not yet addressed in Gaza."
According to a final Gaza Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment released this month by the European Union, United Nations, and World Bank, recovery and reconstruction in the tiny territory will require $71.4 billion over the next decade.
