Bulldozers, some bearing Qatari flags, moved through the streets of Gaza City on Tuesday (October 14), clearing debris from roads and neighbourhoods as part of a post-ceasefire recovery effort led by the local municipality.

The initiative, launched after the ceasefire took effect, aims to reopen key routes across the city to facilitate the return of displaced residents.

“From the beginning of the ceasefire, the municipality of Gaza started immediately to act for opening the roads and streets of the city,” said Yahya al-Sarraj, head of Gaza City Municipality. “This was very important in order to allow for the people to return, come back from the south to the north and for them to reach their homes and their shelter places.”

Drone footage showed widespread destruction across Gaza City, with entire blocks reduced to rubble.

A municipality spokesperson said they are relying on private sector support and international aid, to compensate for the loss of more than 85% of its heavy and medium machinery, according to spokesperson Assem al-Nabih.

European and Arab nations, Canada and the U.S. appear willing to contribute to the estimated $70 billion needed to rebuild Gaza, a U.N. official said on Tuesday, adding that the two-year war there had produced rubble equal to 13 times the pyramids of Giza.

Jaco Cilliers, an official at the United Nations Development Programme, said Israel's war against Hamas had generated at least 55 million tons of rubble and that it could take decades for Gaza to fully recover.

Since a ceasefire deal came into effect in Gaza, large numbers of Palestinians have returned to the ruins of their homes in the coastal territory.

Huge swathes of Gaza have been reduced to a wasteland by Israeli bombardment over two years that killed some 68,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities.

A large part of the destruction is in Gaza City, scene of some of the fiercest fighting. About 83% of all building structures there have been damaged, according to the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT).

UNDP said it had already cleared some 81,000 tons of rubble from the Gaza Strip and was continuing to do so.

Israel launched its offensive after Hamas-led militants attacked the country on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Hamas freed the last living Israeli hostages from Gaza on Monday under the ceasefire deal and Israel sent home busloads of Palestinian detainees, as U.S. President Donald Trump declared the end of the two-year-long war.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

Bulldozers begin clearing rubble from Gaza City streets

VIDEO SHOWS: BULLDOZERS REMOVING RUBBLE IN GAZA CITY / DRONE FOOTAGE SHOWING DAMAGE IN GAZA CITY / INTERVIEWS WITH HEAD OF GAZA CITY MUNICIPALITY AND SPOKESPERSON OF GAZA CITY MUNICIPALITY

RESENDING WITH FULL SCRIPT

SHOWS: GAZA CITY, GAZA (OCTOBER 14, 2025) (VIDEO OBTAINED BY REUTERS - Access all)

1. VARIOUS OF BULLDOZER CLEARING RUBBLE FROM GAZA CITY STREETS

2. VARIOUS OF BULLDOZER, WITH QATARI FLAG ATTACHED TO IT, REMOVING RUBBLE

3. VARIOUS VIEWS OF RUBBLE, STREET AS SEEN FROM BULLDOZER

4. VARIOUS OF BULLDOZER AT WORK

5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) HEAD OF GAZA CITY MUNICIPALITY, YAHYA AL-SARRAJ, SAYING:

“From the beginning of the ceasefire, the municipality of Gaza started immediately to act for opening the roads and streets of the city. This was very important in order to allow for the people to return, come back from the south to the north and for them to reach their homes and their shelter places.”

6. BULLDOZER CLEARING RUBBLE

7. PEOPLE WALKING

8. BULLDOZER MOVING THROUGH STREET

GAZA CITY, GAZA (OCTOBER 14, 2025) (VIDEO OBTAINED BY REUTERS - Access all) (MUTE)

9. VARIOUS OF DRONE FOOTAGE SHOWING DAMAGE IN GAZA CITY

GAZA CITY, GAZA (OCTOBER 14, 2025) (VIDEO OBTAINED BY REUTERS - Access all)

10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) HEAD OF GAZA CITY MUNICIPALITY, YAHYA AL-SARRAJ, SAYING:

“This activity is expected to last for about two months. We don’t have enough equipment, enough loaders or bulldozers to carry out this work, therefore, we take help from the private sector. That’s why this might take some time. Today, we are starting by the help of the Qatari committee, they are starting to support the municipality of Gaza for opening the roads.”

11. BULLDOZERS WITH QATARI FLAGS MOVING THROUGH A ROAD

12. RUBBLE, DAMAGED BUILDING / BULLDOZER WITH QATARI FLAG

13. VARIOUS DRIVING SHOTS SHOWING RUBBLE, DAMAGE

14. (SOUNDBITE) (English) HEAD OF GAZA CITY MUNICIPALITY, YAHYA AL-SARRAJ, SAYING:

“We face many difficulties and we require too many things. Therefore, we ask everybody to open the borders of Gaza Strip to allow for all goods to enter Gaza with no restrictions. We need spare-parts of all kinds, for electric generators, for water wells, pumps for vehicles and we need heavy machinery to support the municipality for the work. And we also demand to have building materials, especially cement, we need at least 1,000 tonnes of cement to come to us immediately in order to repair the water wells, The water and waste water networks. This is very essential and very important. We also demand all kinds of goods and equipment to support the municipality work.”

15. VARIOUS OF BULLDOZERS MOVING

16. VARIOUS OF PALESTINIAN MEN WITH BELONGINGS ON A HORSE-LED CARRIAGE

17. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING

18. (SOUNDBITE) (English) HEAD OF GAZA CITY MUNICIPALITY, YAHYA AL-SARRAJ, SAYING:

“The people here also need shelters, they need immediately to have some, a good number of tents. And more important, we need to have temporary houses to shelter the people during the coming winter and the cold weather. This is very important to keep children and women safe during the coming days. We demand a lot of things, we need to transfer the solid waste from around the city to outside the neighbourhoods and this is required to allow the municipality to reach the main landfill that is located to the east part of the city of Gaza.”

19. VARIOUS OF DAMAGED MACHINERY AND VEHICLES

20. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SPOKESPERSON OF GAZA CITY MUNICIPALITY, ASSEM AL-NABIH, SAYING:

“Our capabilities are very limited. More than 85 percent of the heavy and medium machinery of the municipality were destroyed. Today, we use the internal resources of the city, we rely on the private sector, we cooperate with international institutions and different parties in order to be able to open the main streets and the closed streets in Gaza City.”

21. VARIOUS OF DAMAGED MACHINERY

22. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SPOKESPERSON OF GAZA CITY MUNICIPALITY, ASSEM AL-NABIH, SAYING:

“The amount of damage in the Gaza Strip is huge. (There are) more than 50 million tonnes of rubble now in the Gaza Strip that requires strategies so we can remove them from the areas, neighbourhoods and people's homes. There is also a lack in resources and abilities, especially heavy machinery. We need a big number of heavy machinery from bulldozers, diggers and trucks.”

23. VARIOUS OF BULLDOZERS MOVING

24. VARIOUS OF BULLDOZERS WITH SIGN THAT READS (Arabic, English): "QATAR AID"

25. BULLDOZERS LINED UP

GAZA CITY, GAZA (OCTOBER 14, 2025) (VIDEO OBTAINED BY REUTERS - Access all) (MUTE)

26. VARIOUS OF DRONE FOOTAGE SHOWING DAMAGE IN GAZA CITY