The United Nations Development Programme began clearing a huge wartime garbage dump on Wednesday that has swallowed one of Gaza City’s oldest commercial districts and is an environmental and health risk, according to Reuters.
Alessandro Mrakic, head of the UNDP Gaza Office, said work had started to remove the solid‑waste mound that has overtaken the once busy Fras Market in the Palestinian enclave's main city.
He put the volume of the dump at more than 300,000 cubic metres (390,000 cubic yards) and 13 metres (14 yards) high.
It formed after municipal crews were blocked from reaching Gaza’s main landfill in the Juhr al‑Dik area - adjacent to the border with Israel - when the Gaza war began in October 2023.
The area in Juhr al-Dik is now under full Israeli control.
Over the next six months, UNDP plans to transfer the waste to a new temporary site prepared in the Abu Jarad area south of Gaza City and built to meet environmental standards.
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