Yedioth Ahronoth: America Requested Israel to Take Responsibility for Removing the Rubble from Gaza

Translation by SadaNews - The Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported this Thursday evening that the United States has asked Israel to bear the costs of removing the massive debris left in the Gaza Strip during the two-year war.

According to the site, as translated by SadaNews, the American demand included the removal of rubble destroyed by airstrikes and by the use of bulldozers and other tools.

The site quoted a senior Israeli political source, saying that Israel accepted the request, which could cost hundreds of millions of shekels.

The total estimated cost of the project is in the billions of dollars.

A report by The Wall Street Journal published a few days ago indicated that the Gaza Strip is burdened with 68 million tons of waste debris after most of the buildings there were destroyed or damaged.

The report noted that removing the rubble is a massive operation that will take many years and is expected to exceed a billion dollars in cost.

According to the United Nations Development Programme, which oversees the removal of rubble in Gaza, it estimates the cumulative weight of the destruction debris in the sector to be about 68 million tons.

According to calculations by the American newspaper, this weight is equivalent to that of approximately 186 buildings, such as the Empire State Building in New York.

The process of removing the rubble is considered a prerequisite for starting the reconstruction efforts in Gaza in the second phase of the ceasefire agreement.

The United States hopes to begin the reconstruction of the Rafah area, aiming to make it a successful model for President Donald Trump's reconstruction vision, thereby attracting many residents from different parts of the sector, with the areas that were evacuated set to be rebuilt in later phases, as mentioned by the Hebrew site, and translated by SadaNews.

Senior Israeli officials stated that the United States has demanded that Israel take full responsibility for this, whether through physical resources or even financial means, to remove this huge amount of rubble, to which Israel complied.

Israel will have to remove the traces of destruction in the Rafah area through specialized companies in such projects, and it is expected to bear costs estimated in the tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of shekels.

The Netanyahu office did not respond to what was mentioned in the report.