Gaza’s infrastructure has been severely damaged over the past year: nearly 80% of power transmission is destroyed and the only power plant was shut due to fuel shortages. Hospitals operate in near-darkness, water systems are compromised, and roads and waste collection have broken down. Rebuilding must restore the interdependent systems that sustain dignity — electricity, clean water, healthcare and transport — not only replace buildings.
A Devastated Gaza: Infrastructure Collapses After Another Year of Bombing
Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud reports live from Gaza City, Gaza [Al Jazeera]
Over the past year Gaza’s basic infrastructure has been pushed past the point of mere dysfunction into near-total collapse. Electricity, water systems, hospitals, roads and municipal services have been systematically damaged, leaving daily life defined by survival rather than normal routines.
Daily life reduced to essentials: Families schedule their days around the brief whirr of a neighbour’s generator if fuel is available. Parents and children spend hours queuing for a few litres of contaminated water or a single loaf of bread. Refrigerators sit idle as food spoils; children study by candlelight when they can.
Health services under catastrophic strain: Hospitals operate in near-darkness. Medical teams work with limited supplies, failing equipment and persistent power outages; clinicians have described making impossible triage decisions. I visited intensive care units where patients were doubled up in beds and where dialysis and operating theatres risked going dark mid-procedure.
Water and sanitation deteriorating: Bombing and fuel shortages have damaged wells, desalination plants and pumping stations. Water deliveries — when they arrive — are often brackish or metallic-tasting. Many families have no alternative but to use unsafe water, contributing to gastrointestinal illness, skin infections and reduced hygiene.
Transport, waste and communications broken: Roads are clogged with rubble, ambulances and aid convoys are slowed, and rubbish collection has largely stopped, increasing public health risks. Repeated strikes on telecommunications infrastructure further isolate communities and hinder emergency coordination.
Systems are interdependent: The collapse of one service accelerates failures in others: without power, pumps and hospitals cannot operate; without passable roads, aid cannot reach those in need. Decades of blockade and restrictions on construction materials left Gaza’s infrastructure fragile long before the latest wave of destruction, making recovery even harder.
What rebuilding must mean: Rebuilding cannot be limited to replacing buildings. It requires restoring interdependent systems — reliable electricity, safe water supply, functional hospitals, waste management and transport networks — so civilians can live with dignity.
Until those systems are rebuilt and sustained, Gaza’s civilians will continue to endure the compounded fallout of another year that has shattered the foundations of daily life.
