Clearing the vast devastation left across the Gaza Strip could take close to a decade, a senior United Nations official warned Friday, underscoring the scale of destruction even as a second phase of a U.S.-backed peace plan is set to begin.

After visiting Gaza, Jorge Moreira da Silva, the U.N. under-secretary-general and executive director of UN Office for Project Services, said the enclave is buried under more than 60 million tons of rubble — nearly enough to fill 3,000 container ships.

“It is likely to take over seven years to clear this rubble,” Moreira da Silva said in a statement. “Driving through endless roads of rubble, the level of destruction is overwhelming. Homes, schools, clinics, roads, water and electricity systems have been levelled or severely damaged.”

The estimate highlights the immense challenge facing Gaza as international diplomats point to reconstruction and postwar governance.

Moreira da Silva warned that the humanitarian crisis is deepening even as talk of rebuilding gains momentum, citing harsh winter weather and heavy rains that have compounded already dire living conditions.

“People are exhausted, traumatized and overwhelmed,” he said, adding that children face the risk of becoming a “lost generation” after years of displacement, injury and psychological trauma. With schools shuttered for a third year, he warned, “their wounds — physical and psychological — are hard to heal with every day passing.”

Fuel, he said, remains the single most critical need. “Fuel is the backbone of humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip,” Moreira da Silva said. Without it, hospitals cannot provide life-saving care, water and sanitation systems fail, food aid stalls and emergency responders lose the ability to operate.

While welcoming the announcement of a second phase of the Gaza peace plan as “the beginning of reconstruction,” the U.N. official cautioned that Gaza’s basic services must be restored immediately. He called for expanded humanitarian access, the opening of all crossings and corridors — including renewed aid delivery through the Jordan corridor — and the entry of so-called dual-use items that Israel restricts over concerns they could be repurposed by Hamas.

“It is long overdue to reach a political and diplomatic solution to the conflict so that Palestinians and Israelis can finally live in safety and dignity,” his statement concluded.

The remarks came a day after Donald Trump confirmed that Phase II of the Gaza peace plan has formally begun. In a Truth Social post, Trump said the United States is backing what he described as a newly appointed Palestinian technocratic governing body to administer Gaza during a transition period.

“With support of Egypt, Turkey and Qatar, we will secure a comprehensive demilitarization agreement with Hamas,” Trump wrote, framing the next phase as a pathway toward stability — even as U.N. officials warn that the physical and humanitarian toll of the war will shape Gaza’s future for years to come.

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