Who Is Helping Gaza Deal With Collapsing Buildings and Mountains of Rubble?

The response to Gaza’s collapsing buildings and enormous debris problem is being shared among Gaza Civil Defence teams, UN agencies, local workers and contractors, international donors and humanitarian organizations. Civil Defence is handling urgent search-and-rescue operations, while the UN Development Programme (UNDP) is leading much of the organized debris-management work, including clearing roads, crushing concrete and supporting the safe removal and reuse of rubble. Egypt has also provided heavy machinery for the current rescue response, while the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have committed relief supplies.

But the scale of the problem is far beyond existing capacity. By July 2026, UNDP-led operations had cleared nearly 630,000 tonnes of debris, while OCHA reported that Gaza had generated more than 60 million tonnes overall. Heavy equipment, spare parts, fuel, engine oil, access and security constraints are limiting the pace of clearance. The result is that rubble removal is not simply a cleanup operation: it is now a prerequisite for rescue, humanitarian access, safer shelter, road reopening and eventual reconstruction.

Gaza’s emergency response has several different jobs

There is no single organization responsible for dealing with collapsed buildings.

The immediate task after a collapse is search and rescue. That is principally being carried out by Gaza Civil Defence and associated emergency responders. In the September 16, 2026 collapse of a war-damaged residential building in Gaza City, Civil Defence teams led the search while humanitarian organizations mobilized assistance. The UN humanitarian coordinator said an estimated 100 people, including 50 children, had been inside when the building collapsed.

A second task is debris management: removing rubble from roads and essential facilities, sorting materials, crushing concrete and determining how material can safely be reused.

A third is humanitarian logistics. Roads blocked by collapsed buildings and debris make it harder to reach hospitals, shelters, water facilities and communities.

And a fourth, much longer-term task is recovery and reconstruction—which cannot proceed at meaningful scale until dangerous structures, unexploded hazards and vast quantities of debris are dealt with.

Who is doing what?

The roles overlap. UN agencies frequently work through local partners, contractors and workers rather than operating every machine themselves.

Gaza Civil Defence is on the front line when buildings collapse

When a building suddenly falls, time becomes the critical resource.

Civil Defence rescuers have to determine whether people are trapped, search unstable debris and try to reach survivors while avoiding further collapse. The September 16 collapse illustrated the difficulty: rescuers were working amid a severe shortage of heavy machinery, according to Reuters and the UN. Egypt provided heavy equipment for the response.

The challenge is particularly severe because rescuers cannot simply treat every pile of concrete as ordinary rubble. Voids can contain survivors, while unstable sections can shift when debris is moved.

That makes specialized equipment and trained operators essential.

UNDP has become a central player in rubble removal

The UN Development Programme’s role extends beyond emergency rescue.

UNDP coordinates debris-management operations designed to clear roads and essential facilities, process concrete and reuse suitable material. By July 2026, OCHA reported that nearly 630,000 tonnes of debris had been cleared through UNDP-supported efforts. More than 231,000 tonnes of concrete had also been crushed at five dedicated sites.

Some of the crushed material has already been put back to work. According to OCHA, 184,191 tonnes of crushed concrete had been used to pave about 264,873 square metres of roads and provide foundations for shelters and essential-service facilities.

That approach matters because transporting every tonne of rubble away from Gaza would require enormous amounts of land, fuel, vehicles and time.

Instead, suitable material can sometimes be processed close to where it is generated and reused for infrastructure.

Japan and the European Union are helping finance the work

The machinery operating on the ground depends heavily on international financing.

In April 2026, Japan and UNDP announced a $9.1 million project covering 2026–27 for emergency debris and solid-waste management. UNDP said the preceding 2025–26 project had collected 112,000 tonnes of debris.

In July, UNDP and the European Union launched a €15 million project focused on emergency debris removal, processing and reuse, as well as improving the identification and recovery of human remains. UNDP described debris clearance as a prerequisite for restoring roads and access to hospitals, schools and workplaces.

This financing is important because rubble clearance requires much more than excavators. Operations need trucks, crushers, fuel, spare parts, safety equipment, engineers, operators and sites where material can be processed.

Local workers are doing much of the physical work

International organizations do not operate in Gaza without a local workforce.

UNDP reported that its implementing partners employed 2,819 local workers in 2025 on projects supporting essential services, including debris clearance, roads, water and wastewater infrastructure.

The work includes operating heavy machinery, driving trucks, clearing roads, processing concrete and carrying out infrastructure repairs.

This local capacity is important for another reason: debris management is not a single emergency campaign. It is likely to continue for years and requires knowledge of local roads, neighbourhoods, infrastructure and operating conditions.

Why the rubble cannot simply be removed faster

The quantity of debris is only one problem.

OCHA reported in May that Gaza’s debris-removal capacity had fallen from roughly 25,000 tonnes per day to about 5,000 tonnes because heavy machinery was no longer functioning. Restrictions affecting the entry of machinery, spare parts and other supplies have compounded the problem.

UNDP has also identified access, fuel, machinery permits and security as conditions affecting the speed of clearance. Its technical teams estimated that most of Gaza’s debris could potentially be cleared within seven years—but only under conditions allowing sustained access, machinery, fuel and a stable operating environment.

That estimate is a projection rather than a timetable. Changes in security conditions, access arrangements, financing or equipment availability could substantially alter it.

Rubble can contain more than concrete

One of the most complicated parts of debris management is determining what is inside the rubble.

Destroyed buildings can contain personal belongings, hazardous materials, electrical components and potentially human remains. Conflict debris can also be contaminated by unexploded ordnance.

The UNDP-EU project launched in July specifically includes support for the dignified recovery and identification of human remains, illustrating why debris removal cannot always be treated as conventional construction waste management.

Mine-action organizations also face the challenge of unexploded ordnance. Such hazards can make seemingly routine excavation dangerous and require specialist assessment before heavy equipment can safely operate.

Clearing rubble also helps people who are still living among ruins

Debris removal is directly connected to shelter.

A blocked road can prevent an ambulance from reaching a neighbourhood. A collapsed building can cut off access to a water facility. A pile of rubble can prevent displaced families from reaching safer accommodation.

UNDP says its debris programme has been used to reopen access routes and support roads, shelters and essential services.

That means the value of clearing rubble is not measured only in tonnes removed. A relatively small amount of strategically placed debris can have an outsized effect if removing it reconnects an isolated community or opens access to a hospital.

The biggest gap is between the scale of destruction and the response capacity

The figures show why the problem cannot be solved through isolated rescue operations.

UNDP and OCHA’s reported clearance of hundreds of thousands of tonnes represents substantial work, but it remains a small fraction of the estimated debris generated across Gaza. OCHA said in July that more than 60 million tonnes of debris had been generated.

The gap also explains why heavy machinery has become a humanitarian issue rather than merely a construction requirement.

Excavators and loaders are needed to rescue people, clear roads, remove dangerous structures, prepare shelter sites and eventually rebuild infrastructure. When those machines are unavailable or cannot be maintained, several parts of the recovery effort slow simultaneously.

What happens next depends on access, equipment and safety

The immediate priority remains saving people trapped in collapsed structures and moving families away from buildings assessed as unsafe. The UN has called for urgent approval and entry of heavy machinery, specialized equipment, engine oil and fuel, alongside tents and other emergency shelter materials.

The longer-term challenge is much larger: Gaza needs a system capable of assessing damaged buildings, safely removing hazardous structures, recovering human remains, processing tens of millions of tonnes of debris and rebuilding roads and essential infrastructure.

UNDP’s work demonstrates that organized debris management is already possible at a limited scale. But the current numbers also show the central constraint: **Gaza does not simply need more people willing to clear rubble. It needs sustained access to the machinery, fuel, specialist expertise, financing and operating conditions required to do that work safely at a scale remotely comparable with the destruction.**