{"id":313977,"date":"2025-12-18T14:30:43","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T19:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=313977"},"modified":"2025-12-26T14:41:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T19:41:00","slug":"undp-papp-story-18dec25","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/undp-papp-story-18dec25\/","title":{"rendered":"UNDP\/PAPP: This Is Home: Re-building Life Amid Gaza\u2019s Rubble"},"content":{"rendered":"

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18 December 2025<\/p>\n

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In the Gaza Strip, following the most recent ceasefire agreement reached on 9 October 2025, families can be seen returning to the north – not to their homes, but to the memories of what once stood.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Along Al-Rashid Street, which stretches across the length of the Gaza Strip coastline, trucks rumble past crumbled neighborhoods, piled high with whatever belongings that families have managed to maintain throughout numerous moves. On the very ground where living rooms, kitchens, and children\u2019s bedrooms once were, families now pitch tents directly atop the rubble.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Across Gaza City, makeshift shelters cling to the edges of shattered buildings, bringing pops of color into a vast grey landscape of ruins. Families cook, wash, and rebuild fragments of routine amid collapsed walls. Children sprint barefoot between the debris, clutching empty jerry cans, their ears tuned for the sharp repeated blasts of a truck horn\u2014the signal that precious water has arrived. <\/span><\/p>\n

With restrictions preventing the entry of most supplies, the ruins around them are not just reminders of loss; they are all they have left. The rubble contains valuables, photographs, and sometimes, the bodies of loved ones.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Khalid from Gaza City was sheltered in a nearby school while his home was destroyed by an airstrike. His family returned with a tent to live on the debris that remains.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Two of his seven children were killed during similar airstrikes. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel close to my children when I stay here,\u201d Khalid explains.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Though his neighborhood provides a sense of familiarity, Khalid\u2019s family struggles to attend to their basic needs. There are no regular services provided in the area.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no water. No electricity. No life.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0Khalid picks through the debris surrounding his home to sell small parts and tools that he finds to make an income to support his family. He hopes that the rubble will be removed soon so that he can rebuild his home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my home. My land. My identity.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To date, UNDP has cleared over 190,000 tons of rubble using the limited machinery available inside Gaza. These efforts are reopening access routes and enabling aid to reach people, but conditions remain extremely fragile, and sustained safety guarantees and access are crucial. The rubble is crushed into a powder and used to level roads and areas around communal kitchens and protect shelter sites from flooding.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Bushra from Jabaliya, one of the most destroyed neighborhoods in north Gaza, who has three boys \u2013 aged 18, 16, and 11 was displaced along with her family for eighteen months during the war. They returned to their neighborhood when the most recent ceasefire was reached in October 2025. Instead of a house, they found a pile of debris. Now, her family of five is living in a tent on the remains of their home.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Her youngest son, is studying online, although the mobile connection in Jabaliya is unstable at best. He often takes the family\u2019s mobile phone on long walks to determine the best location for connection and quickly downloads lessons to practice math and science.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI hope they rebuild my school. I want to go back and continue learning,\u201d shares Abdulrahman.\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Every day, Bushra walks to the end of her long street to fetch water from a truck.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cHere, there is suffering everywhere. I just want all women in Gaza to live in dignity and peace.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bushra and family plan to remain living on top of the ruins of her home \u2013 she feels comfortable with the neighbors she has known for years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHere, it feels like home for us.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maintaining a feeling of \u201chome\u201d is vital to support Gaza\u2019s social fabric following the brutal two-year war. As part of UNDP\u2019s transitional neighborhood approach to early recovery in Gaza, services are provided as a package in selected locations so that the basic needs of families can meet them where they are \u2013 debris removal, water, latrines, solid waste disposal, wastewater infrastructure support, and emergency employment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nufuz and her family are one of four families also taking shelter in a destroyed home in Jabaliya. The roof of the house has caved in, and the home is not structurally sound.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cMy husband needs constant care. His back was injured during the war, and he can\u2019t do anything. I must walk far to collect wood and water daily.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In Gaza, the cost of fuel is exorbitant, and wood is often used to light fires for cooking.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nufuz\u2019s family was displaced countless times during the war \u2013 too many timed for her to count.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They returned during the most recent ceasefire and have no plans to move again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no choice for us now. We will stay here.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When it rains, water enters the home through multiple openings in the roof.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very worried about winter. The heavy rain is coming.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

UNDP is scaling up winterization as a part of its ceasefire response plan. To start, UNDP has produced and set up 1,000 shelter frames locally to expand dignified, weather-resistant shelter options, and is establishing new neighborhood-based shelter sites. Additionally, 3,000 transitional units are procured and prepositioned in the region ready to be delivered once the situation allows. Sustained access for shelter supplies and equipment to enter Gaza is vital.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Far beyond a technical task, clearing the rubble and implementing basic services in Gaza is a means of restoring dignity and hope for the nearly two million Palestinians who are internally displaced.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  18 December 2025 In the Gaza Strip, following the most recent ceasefire agreement reached on 9 October 2025, families can be seen returning to the north – not to their homes, but to the memories of what once stood.\u00a0\u00a0 Along Al-Rashid Street, which stretches across the length of the Gaza Strip coastline, trucks rumble […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[6926],"document-source":[2917],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1769,5449,2033,2005,2029,1745],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-313977","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-stories","document-source-undp-programme-of-assistance-to-the-palestinian-people-papp","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-assistance-to-the-palestinian-people","document-subject-children","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-house-demolitions","document-subject-refugees-and-displaced-persons","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/313977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/313977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313980,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/313977\/revisions\/313980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=313977"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=313977"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=313977"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=313977"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=313977"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=313977"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=313977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}