In the ruins of his two-story home, 11-year-old Mohammed gathers pieces of the collapsed roof into a broken pail. He pounds them into gravel, which his father will use to make gravestones for victims of the Gaza war.
“We collect the rubble not to build houses, but for tombstones and graves. It’s like going from one misery to another,” explains Jihad Shamali, 42, a former construction worker. He says this as he cuts through metal salvaged from their home in the southern city of Khan Younis, which was destroyed during an Israeli raid in April.
The work is difficult and sometimes somber. In March, the family constructed a tomb for one of Shamali’s sons, Ismail, who was killed while running household errands.
However, this is just a small part of the ongoing efforts to address the destruction caused by Israel’s military campaign to eradicate the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
According to the United Nations, there is more than 42 million tonnes of debris, which includes both partially destroyed structures and completely flattened buildings.
That is 14 times the amount of rubble accumulated in Gaza between 2008 and the war’s start a year ago, and over five times the amount left by the 2016-17 Battle of Mosul in Iraq, the U.N. said.
Piled up, it would fill the Great Pyramid of Giza – Egypt’s largest – 11 times. And it is growing daily.
