EDITORIAL: As displaced Palestinians ravaged by the brutal, 15-month-long war in Gaza now trudge back to their homes after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect on January 19, they have been met with a landscape of utter devastation — their old neighbourhoods reduced to rubble, essential infrastructure destroyed, basic necessities like food, water and medical care in critically short supply and livelihoods shattered.
With little to rebuild their lives upon, they face an uncertain and grueling struggle for survival in a place that no longer resembles home. As very aptly and succinctly put by a returnee to the northern part of the enclave, “There is nothing, no life, no water, no food … nothing for living.”
By January 28, most of the 650,000 people displaced from northern Gaza had re-entered the Strip, but the essential supplies needed to sustain their survival and that had been agreed upon during the ceasefire negotiations hadn’t come through. There has been a critical shortage of items like fuel, cooking gas and tents. The initial need of tents, for example, had been put down at 135,000, but a mere 2,000 have been allowed in by the end of January.
Compounding the immense misery is the fact that much-needed rehabilitation efforts in vital areas are yet to take effect, with work on re-establishing hospitals and bakeries destroyed by the war still not underway.
According to the UN, rebuilding Gaza’s shattered homes could take many decades as merely clearing the rubble will require massive resources.
Furthermore, the Food and Agriculture Organisation has reported devastating damage to the territory’s agricultural sector.
Three-quarters of fields and olive orchards have been either severely damaged or destroyed, while more than two-thirds of irrigation wells are out of service. Livestock losses have reached 96 percent, milk production has nearly collapsed, and just one percent of poultry has survived, severely impacting food security.
Despite this utter destruction, where an entire way of life has been ravaged beyond recognition, more than 47,000 people have been killed, and foundational infrastructure and vital institutions have been obliterated, Israel’s bloodlust clearly remains unquenched as demonstrated by its ban on the UN agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), which came into effect on January 30. While the organisation’s clinics and other humanitarian operations will continue, the ban will nevertheless impact its life-saving work in the region which, for the last 75 years, has proven to be a lifeline for Palestinians.
Making matters worse is the make-up of the new administration in the White House, which is dominated by pro-Israel hawks, making the ceasefire a shaky one with there being legitimate fears that the US will live up to its reputation of failing to play the role of an honest, impartial referee in Middle Eastern affairs.
This was amply demonstrated by President Donald Trump’s heartless proposal – thankfully rejected by neighbouring Jordan and Egypt – that large numbers of Palestinians should leave Gaza to “just clean out” the whole Strip, a proposition that essentially calls for the ethnic cleansing of Gazans.
It is crucial that the blatant violations of international law ever since October 7, 2023 are now not followed by further humiliation and pain for the people of Gaza. The long road to recovery will be fraught with uncertainty, and requires urgent and massive humanitarian aid, and sustained efforts to rebuild the basic necessities of life.
Global powers that quietly witnessed the systematic pulverisation of Gaza and the brutalisation of the Palestinian people must now shed their duplicity, and ensure that meaningful steps are taken to both deliver urgent humanitarian relief, and support the long-term reconstruction necessary for a dignified recovery.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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