Palestinians use Gaza rubble to restore streets as US rebuilding plan stalls

Palestinians are using war rubble to repave streets destroyed during Israel's two-year assault on Gaza, crushing concrete and metal into pavement under a U.N.-run project they hope will mark a first step toward rehabilitating their damaged cities.



The project run by the United Nations Development Programme comes as progress stalls in U.S. President Donald Trump's Gaza plan, meant to build on an October Israel-Hamas ceasefire by surging aid and rebuilding the enclave from scratch.



It marks a bid by the U.N. and Palestinians to use locally available machinery to clear mountains of rubble that officials say is blocking access to water wells and hospitals and making it difficult to get the economy going again.



Alessandro Mrakic, head of UNDP's Gaza office, said the territory faces one of the largest post-war clearance challenges in memory with an estimated 61 million tons of rubble.