At only 41 kilometers long (25.4 miles) and two to five kilometers wide (1.2 to 3.1 miles), few places in the Gaza Strip remained unscathed by constant Israeli bombardments before the latest ceasefire took effect last Friday.

According to the United Nations Development Program’s Special Representative for the Palestinians, Jaco Cilliers, the destruction across the enclave “is now around 84 percent. In some parts of Gaza, such as Gaza City, this figure is as high as 92 percent.”

$20 billion needed now

Speaking from Jerusalem, UNDPMr. Cilliers highlighted the findings of the latest Rapid Interim Damage and Needs Assessment (IRDNA) in Gaza carried out by the UN, the European Union and the World Bank, which estimated the damage at $70 billion.

To relaunch the massive operation, some $20 billion will be needed over the next three years alonehe told reporters in Geneva.

The United Nations development agency is present in Gaza alongside humanitarian partners to provide immediate support to the enclave’s 2.1 million residents.

This includes providing clean water, emergency employment, medical supplies, solid waste disposal, and securing homes and public spaces by clearing rubble that potentially hides unexploded ordnance or thousands of missing Palestinians.

“We have already removed around 81,000 tonnes. That represents around… 3,100 trucks,” Mr Cilliers explained. “Most of the debris removal is aimed at providing access for humanitarian actors so that they can provide much-needed aid and support to the people of Gaza. But we are also helping hospitals and other social services that need to be cleared of debris.”

The UNDP official stressed “very good indications” from potential donors in support of the reconstruction of Arab states, but also European nations and the United States “which have also indicated that they will come to support some of the early recovery efforts”.

Indispensable immediate help

As important as reconstruction is to Gaza’s long-term future, UN humanitarians have once again called on Israeli authorities to open all access points to Gaza, after the 20 remaining Israeli hostages were released on Monday and Palestinian prisoners released from Israel.

The development follows the signing of a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel on Monday evening in Sharm el-Sheikh by US President Donald Trump and the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.

Earlier Monday, the U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the release of all living hostages from Gaza, two years after they were among the approximately 250 people captured during the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023.

Testimony from Gaza City

Talk to UN News of Gaza, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), aid worker Tess Ingram described the story of a family displaced five times by war:

“I met a family today, Mustafa and Syeda and their children, and they told me they were one of the lucky ones because while Mustafa was removing the rubble from the building, this is their house, at least,” he said, “we have a house.”

The family was relieved Monday when a tanker truck appeared, Ms. Imgram told us: “But they live in fear that the truck won’t arrive today or tomorrow. She also can’t get the medicine she needs and her sons had to travel a very long way today just to buy the basic necessities she needed. bread.

“Families absolutely need everything right now. We need the hundreds of trucks per day that have been promised to enter the Gaza Strip.”

The hostage remains

On Tuesday, attention focused on the transfer from Gaza of all the deceased hostages, an extremely difficult process overseen by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). It is still unclear how many deceased hostages will be transferred by Hamas.

“As for live hostages or Palestinian detainees – and believe me, this is a big problem for us – we don’t know, we know we have to be ready,” said ICRC spokesperson Christian Cardon, adding that the complex search began today.

Meanwhile, needs in Gaza remain enormous and “fluid,” humanitarian teams report, with more than 300,000 Palestinians heading north toward Gaza City since Friday, as the ceasefire agreement appeared to be holding.

“The enthusiasm that came from the international community, from the people on the ground, that this was the beginning of the end of all suffering and that things were going to change quickly, is it just doesn’t reflect on the groundday after day. We are not receiving enough aid,” said Ricardo Pires, spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Israeli authorities have agreed to allow 190,000 tonnes of relief supplies into Gaza and UN agencies and partners are rapidly scaling up operations, but much more is needed overall, according to humanitarian agencies, including the UN aid office, OCHAwe repeated it several times.

“Of course we are pleading with everyone, and we were also present yesterday in Sharm el-Sheikh, with 22 heads of state and government, who we are asking to help us press all possible buttons to get this up and running as quickly as possible,” said OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke.

Help Center Carnage

Humanitarian teams continue to stress the need to stop distributing vital supplies from remote areas, including non-UN aid centers that are difficult to access and where hundreds of Palestinians have been shot or injured.

“Most actors – including the ICRC – have not been able to organize sufficient distribution of aid inside Gaza,” Mr Cardon said. “And what we’ve seen instead is people coming back from distribution sites being injured, or even killed, in many cases… This is help coming to people and not other people going to help.” »

Ms Mohammed was speaking at the world leaders’ meeting on women, co-hosted by China and UN Womenwhich aims to revive the spirit of the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women – at which the Beijing Declaration was adopted – and to advance gender equality and women’s development globally.

“Women’s rights are human rights” said » the deputy head of the UN, recalling the positive atmosphere of the 1995 conference and the impact of the Declaration which “opened the way to progress”, and thanking China for hosting the event, as well as the Member States who “kept this flame alive”.

Despite the progress made over the past 30 years, the pace of change has been slow: a report released by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) in September warned that none of the gender equality goals are on track, with an estimated 708 million women excluded from the labor market due to unpaid care work. And 351 million women and girls risk being trapped in extreme poverty in 2030.

“We are only five years away from the deadline of our 2030 project. Sustainable Development Goals“, said Ms. Mohammed. “It’s late. We are running out of time to keep the promise we made thirty years ago.

Beijing’s roadmap to equality

The deputy UN chief recalled that the Declaration is a road map that has resonated in all major UN frameworks since its adoption, including the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and the Pact for the Future.

The agreement, she continued, shows that women’s empowerment – ​​including safety and the rights to education, health care and full political participation – must be at the heart of the design of national visions and plans: “In every negotiating room, in every budget we write and in every policy we design, gender equality must be our organizing principle. »

There is a financial imperative to advance gender equality, as Ms Mohammed highlighted in her speech: UN studies show that by ensuring women and girls gain quality education and digital skills, 30 million people could be lifted out of extreme poverty and some $1.5 trillion could be injected into the global economy in just five years.

The deputy UN chief concluded by emphasizing the need to increase the number of women in leadership positions. “We have proof,” she said, “that where women lead, we see more lasting peace, more profitable businesses and more inclusive policies. »

The allocation, announced Monday by Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher, will support the immediate scale-up of aid operations in the Gaza Strip, including food, water, health care and shelter for civilians affected by two years of conflict.

This follows a $9 million allocation last week to ensure fuel supplies to hospitals and essential services, bringing the recent total DEER Gaza funding to $20 million.

The announcement comes as the ceasefire brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt continues to hold, alongside the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees, offering what the UN secretary-general described as “a fragile hope of calm after months of devastation.”

Urgent scaling is needed

The UN and its partners are rapidly scaling up operations across Gaza as access improves, providing lifesaving aid to areas that have been cut off for months. However, a massive increase in funding is needed in the face of overwhelming needs.

Mr Fletcher warned that without further contributions to CERF, essential aid could not continue to reach the people who need it.

Speaking from Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, on the eve of a summit on Gaza, he said the UN’s stepped-up humanitarian aid was underway in what he called “a moment of precarious hope” for many.

“This is a moment of opportunity, but also a moment that requires determined patience, creativity and sustained generosity,” he said.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN teams have now secured Israeli approval for 190,000 tonnes of aid, cooking gas entering Gaza for the first time since March and more food, tents and medical supplies arriving daily.