UN: Gaza war rubble will take a year to clear

Palestinian workers will need one year to clear half a million tons of concrete rubble from Gaza Strip districts bombed and bulldozed by the Israel Defense Forces during its 22-day offensive in January, the United Nations said on Thursday.

The United Nations Development Program was beginning its rubble removal project six months after the war ended on January 18, with still no idea of when organized reconstruction could begin, said the UNDP's Jens-Anders Toyberg-Frandzen.

"At the moment we cannot rebuild. That is of course very sad. We don't have access to cement, we don't have access to construction material because of the borders being closed. So we cannot build houses," he said.

Thousands of buildings were destroyed during Israel's Operation Cast Lead, launched on December 27 with the declared aim of forcing Hamas fighters and other Palestinian groups to stop firing rockets and mortars at Israeli towns.

A Palestinian rights group says 1,417 people were killed, 926 of them civilians. The IDF put the death toll at 1,166, of which an estimated 295 were civilians. Thirteen Israelis were killed during the war, 10 of them soldiers.

Whole districts were razed during the operation to minimize the risk of IDF casualties from guerrilla small-arms attacks and booby-trap bombs, and to open up fields of fire for Israeli tanks, artillery and armored infantry units in Gaza.

Israel prohibits the import of cement and steel reinforcing rods on the grounds that they could be used for military purposes by Hamas, such as constructing defenses. But these are also the materials the people of Gaza build their homes with.

"The UN is constantly advocating for opening of the borders so that material can come in for humanitarian purposes, and also to be able to ensure or help the Palestinians in Gaza get a reasonable and decent life again," the UNDP representative said.

"But we haven't succeeded so far."

The rubble - estimated to total 600,000 tons according to the UNDP - is to be collected at a central dump where it will later be crushed and used for new construction - whenever that can begin in earnest.

Since January, thousands of Gaza homeless have either lived with relatives, in UN-provided tents or in makeshift camps in the ruins of their homes. Some have built houses of mud bricks.

A political deal with Israel to ease its blockade of Gaza remains out of reach, blocked partly by the split in Palestinian ranks between Hamas Islamists who seized control of the enclave in fighting with the long dominant Fatah faction in 2007.

Donor countries pledged $4 billion for reconstruction at a meeting in January but no work can begin before Israel opens the border crossings it controls to building materials.

Anders-Frandzen said the UN still had $60 million of funds earmarked for reconstruction of war damage inflicted in Gaza in 2005 and still not cleared up.