NEW YORK CITY: The head of the UN Development Programme said on Tuesday that living conditions in Gaza are the worst he has witnessed in his career, as he urged Israeli authorities to grant more access for the removal of debris, the provision of temporary housing, and private-sector recovery efforts.
Speaking in East Jerusalem after a three-day visit to Gaza, Alexander De Croo said 90 percent of the territory’s population was living amid rubble in “extremely painful” and dangerous circumstances.
“I have been minister of development for six years in the past; this is the worst living conditions that I have ever seen,” he said.
Teams from his agency are focusing their recovery efforts in Gaza on three main areas, he explained: the removal of rubble and other solid waste, temporary housing, and restarting parts of the private sector.
UNDP has removed about 5 percent of the rubble from the war-ravaged enclave so far, De Croo said, but at the current pace clearing it all will take seven years.
