Gazans launch volunteer campaign to clean streets, restore infrastructure

In rain-soaked Gaza City, where streets still bear the scars of a two-year war, dozens of volunteers stepped forward with brooms, shovels, and an unyielding sense of hope.

They moved through puddles and broken stone, intent on breathing life back into a city long weighed down by rubble and memories. Their efforts marked the launch of a sweeping volunteer campaign led by the Gaza Municipality, working hand in hand with the Gaza Chamber of Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture and the Palestinian NGO Network — a collective attempt, as the municipality put it, to “shine a light of hope” and rekindle the spirit of community-led reconstruction.

Hosny Muhanna, the municipality’s public relations officer, described the effort as more than cleanup: a mission to sweep away ruins, plant new trees along battered streets, and restore beauty to a place whose resilience has never dimmed.

For mayor Yahya al-Sarraj, the sight of youth, elders, men, women, and children working side by side was a stirring declaration. Their presence, he said, was a message to the world that Palestinians would remain rooted in their land, unbroken despite every attempt to weaken them. “Gaza is capable of life,” he noted, his words carried on the damp breeze as he joined the volunteers.

Amjad al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGO Network, echoed that sentiment, calling the initiative a first step on a far longer path — one that must ultimately clear the staggering 60 million tons of rubble that still blankets the Gaza Strip, and rebuild the city “better than it was” before the devastation.

Ayed Abu Ramadan of the Gaza Chamber of Commerce spoke of a Gaza that has endured killing and destruction, yet continues to prove its remarkable ability to rise once more from the ashes.

Among the volunteers was 30-year-old Ibrahim Hassan, pickaxe in hand, chiseling away debris on one of Gaza’s battered main streets. He said he joined because he believes Gaza will only return to life through the hands of its people. “Even if it takes generations,” he said, “we must begin.”

Nearby, volunteer Hanan Obeid, her face mask dusted with grit, cleared piles of garbage with quiet determination. She spoke with pride, calling it the duty of every resident to restore Gaza’s lifeblood as swiftly as possible.

This grassroots campaign unfolds against the backdrop of a dire humanitarian emergency in the Gaza Strip, where warnings are growing over environmental and health risks as waste accumulates near makeshift shelters. Alaa al-Batta, deputy head of the Union of Municipalities, warned that some 700,000 tons of waste now overwhelm temporary dumping sites — a burden local municipalities cannot manage amid acute shortages of fuel and machinery.

Yet, amid the hardship, the sight of volunteers reclaiming their city offers something long in short supply: a glimpse of renewal, carried on the shoulders of a determined people.

With IANS inputs