The Gaza Municipality has sounded the alarm over the scale of devastation engulfing the city, warning that the Israeli onslaught has dismantled the very fabric of life in Gaza. In a stark statement, the municipality described a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe, with over 260,000 tons of waste now choking the city’s streets and 63,000 trees uprooted, stripping the landscape of its last vestiges of nature.

What was once a city of life and resilience now lies buried under tonnes of rubble and refuse. Eight public parks, crucial green spaces for Gaza’s suffocating population, have been completely obliterated. The assault has not only levelled infrastructure but targeted cultural and historical heritage in what local officials describe as an attempt to erase the city’s memory.

Municipal services are in ruins: 134 service vehicles, 22 municipal buildings, 8 major markets, and 5 cultural centres have all been destroyed. Even Gaza’s 165 heritage buildings—some centuries old—have not been spared, as the city’s archives, computer systems, and control centres lie in ruins.

The city is now cloaked in darkness. Most of its street lighting networks have been wiped out, adding to the despair of a population already grappling with siege, bombardment, and disease. Essential services are teetering on collapse: 810 kilometres of roads, 175,000 metres of sewage pipelines, and 115,000 metres of water networks have been obliterated. With 63 water wells and 8 major pumping stations also destroyed, Gaza is plunged into a water and sanitation crisis that threatens thousands with disease.

In total, over half a million tons of solid waste have piled up across the Gaza Strip, according to environmental expert Prof. Abdel Fattah Abdel Rabbo. Gaza City alone accounts for more than 175,000 tons, while debris from bombed homes and buildings is estimated at a staggering 50 million tons.

The Gaza Municipality is pleading for urgent international intervention, stating that the city is experiencing a deliberate, systematic erasure of its infrastructure, environment, and people. This is not just a war, they insist—it is the annihilation of life itself.