For Gaza resident Yassir Shaheen, nights were the hardest part of living through Israel\u2019s devastating two-year war on the enclave.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany nights, we lay awake, our lips dry, our hearts pounding in fear, feeling as though the sky itself was collapsing on us,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The Strip lies in tatters \u2013 its economy destroyed, infrastructure in ruins, and its people displaced, as a fragile US-brokered truce barely holds. More than 68,000 Palestinians have been confirmed killed, with some 10,000 still buried under the rubble, according to Gaza\u2019s Health Ministry.<\/p>\n As world leaders in the Qatari capital Doha pledged this week to \u201cleave no one behind\u201d at the United Nations Second World Summit for Social Development (WSSD), the commitments stood in stark contrast to the reality in Gaza, where access to basic needs remains a luxury.<\/p>\n \u201cEven bread can feel out of reach,\u201d Shaheen, the team lead for the charity Humanity First UK in Gaza, revealed.<\/p>\n While prices have fallen compared with the worst periods of the war, they are still six to 10 times higher, Shaheen said.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Gaza\u2019s Government Media Office said Israel has only allowed 4,453 trucks to enter, barely a quarter of what was supposed to enter daily according to the ceasefire agreement that came into effect on October 10.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, infrastructure in the enclave has been almost completely destroyed, Shaheen lamented, with only rubble remaining \u201cwhere streets and buildings once stood\u201d.<\/p>\n According to UN estimates, 92 percent of all residential buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed since Israel\u2019s war on the enclave began on October 7, 2023, producing between 55-60 million tonnes of rubble.<\/p>\n \u201cSchools, clinics, shops, homes \u2026 everything that allowed life to function has been reduced to dust,\u201d he said<\/p>\n At the WSSD this week, which concluded on Thursday, member states repledged commitments made at the 1995 summit in Copenhagen, including the eradication of poverty, providing \u201cdecent\u201d work, social integration, education and healthcare to the world\u2019s most vulnerable populations.<\/p>\n The resulting Doha Political Declaration, adopted at the end of the summit, was a \u201cbooster shot for development\u201d, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, global declarations such as the WSSD do little in the face of the dire situation in Gaza, according to Rohan Talbot, director of advocacy at the UK-based Medical Aid for Palestinians.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite the ceasefire, the situation in the health sector remains catastrophic, with severe shortages of medical equipment and medicines, and hundreds of healthcare workers killed or still detained,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cDevelopment is impossible while Palestinians are denied the most basic rights to safety, movement, and dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n Echoing Talbot, the head of Humanity First UK, Aziz Hafiz, said \u201cno declaration, however eloquent, can substitute for the fundamental right to freedom and security\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cDevelopment cannot flourish in isolation from justice and peace,\u201d he told Al Jazeera. However, he asserted that does not mean \u201cwe wait for peace to act.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEvery vocational programme, school rehabilitation, or psychosocial initiative becomes an act of resistance to despair,\u201d he said. \u201cWhile permanent peace remains the ultimate enabler of prosperity, maintaining human dignity in the present moment is equally critical.\u201d<\/p>\n MAP\u2019s Talbot asserted that for any \u201cmeaningful development\u201d, the international community must ensure that humanitarian law is upheld.<\/p>\n \u201cThere must be genuine pressure on the Israeli government, as the occupying power, to enforce a permanent ceasefire, open the crossings, and allow the unrestricted entry of aid and medical supplies for thousands of injured Palestinians,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n After two years of relentless Israeli attacks and destruction, Shaheen said what Palestinians most want in Gaza is to \u201crebuild [their homes] with their own hands, and to regain a piece of normal life again\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cLiving in the displacement camps is one of the hardest things people are going through now,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n \u201cMost people have no real shelter, only thin, flimsy tents that barely stand against the wind. There\u2019s no space, no privacy, no comfort. When it rains or when the sun burns, there is nowhere to escape.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Shaheen says the scale of devastation raises painful questions about what rebuilding looks like.<\/p>\n \u201cHow long will it take just to remove the rubble? We hear that it could take years. And if clearing the debris takes that long, then how long will it take before rebuilding can even begin?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But more importantly, for Shaheen, rebuilding is not just about \u201cconcrete and walls\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is about rebuilding their lives, their sense of safety, and their dignity. They do not just want buildings to rise again, but life to return.\u201d<\/p>\n Israel has violated the ceasefire at least 80 times, according to the Gaza Government Media Office. More than 240 Palestinians, including dozens of children, have been killed by the Israeli army since the ceasefire began.<\/p>\n MAP\u2019s director of advocacy Talbot said the only path to sustainable peace and development in the Strip were \u201cjustice and accountability\u201d for the atrocities committed.<\/p>\n \u201cDeclarations and summits will remain hollow exercises unless they are matched with political will to end the root causes of Gaza\u2019s suffering, including Israel\u2019s ongoing military occupation and blockade,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cPalestinians must have self-determination to lead their recovery and define what their future will look like.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n For Gaza resident Yassir Shaheen, nights were the hardest part of living through Israel\u2019s devastating two-year war on the enclave. \u201cMany nights, we lay awake, our lips dry, our hearts pounding in fear, feeling as though the sky itself was collapsing on us,\u201d he told Al Jazeera. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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Development \u2018impossible\u2019 amid lack of rights<\/h2>\n
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