 "Trump's Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff visits Gaza, says reconstruction to take 10-15 years")
Steve Witkoff, the US Special Envoy to Middle East, has visited the Gaza Strip and said it may take 10-15 years to rebuild the war-ravaged enclave.
Gaza has been devastated in Israeli bombardment and ground battles between Israeli forces and Hamas. The United Nations (UN) has said that 92 per cent of all houses in the Palestinian enclave have been destroyed or damaged in the war. Several neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble in their entirety.
Witkoff has become the first senior US official to visit Gaza in more than a decade. He visited the Netzarim Corridor in Gaza, which divides the strip into northern and southern halves, to inspect the implementation of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The Corridor is being used for the security screening of displaced Palestinians returning to their homes in northern Gaza.
In an interview with Axios, Witkoff said that the security arrangements at Netzarim and Philadelphi Corridors are working better than expected.
Witkoff arrived in Israel on Wednesday after visiting Saudi Arabia where he met Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and senior Palestinian official Hussein al-Sheikh. The meeting was the first official contact between the Trump administration and Palestinian Authority (PA), the de facto Palestinian government that partially governs West Bank. In Israel, Witkoff met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top officials and told Axios that he stressed for the implementation of the complete implementation of the ceasefire deal.
‘There is almost nothing left of Gaza’
Commenting on the devastation in Gaza, Witkoff told Axios that “there is almost nothing left of Gaza”.
“What was inescapable is that there is almost nothing left of Gaza…People are moving north to get back to their homes and see what happened and turn around and leave … there is no water and no electricity. It is stunning just how much damage occurred there,” said Witkoff.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsOut of total 436,000 housing units affected by the war, accounting for 92 per cent of all houses in Gaza, the UN has said that 160,000 have been completely destroyed and 276,000 have been damaged partially. As hundreds of thousands of Palestinians return to northern Gaza, many of them are finding their homes and neighbourhoods in ruins.
Witkoff said that the devastation of Gaza has been underestimated so far. He described the strip as “uninhabitable”.
“There has been this perception we can get to a solid plan for Gaza in five years. But it’s impossible. This is a 10 to 15 year rebuilding plan…There is nothing left standing. Many unexploded ordnances. It is not safe to walk there. It is very dangerous. I wouldn’t have known this without going there and inspecting,” said Witkoff.
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