Gaza in ruins after year-long war with Israel; rebuilding may take decades
There are hills of rubble where apartment blocks stood, and pools of sewage-tainted water spreading disease. City streets have been churned into dirt canyons and, in many places, the air is filled with the stench of unrecovered corpses.
Israel's yearlong offensive against Hamas, one of the deadliest and most destructive in recent history, has killed more than 41,000 people, a little over half of them women and children, according to local health officials. With no end in sight to the war and no plan for the day after, it is impossible to say when or even if anything will be rebuilt.
Even after the fighting stops, hundreds of thousands of people could be stuck living in squalid tent camps for years. Experts say reconstruction could take decades.
This war is destruction and misery. It would make the stones cry out, said Shifaa Hejjo, a 60-year-old housewife living in a tent pitched on land where her home once stood. Whoever sees Gaza ... It will make them cry.
Israel blames the ...