Joint Assessment: Over $50bn Needed to Rebuild Gaza
WEST BANK (Dispatches) – More than $50 billion will be required to rebuild Gaza after the 15-month aggression by the Zionist regime on the Palestinian enclave, according to an assessment released by the United Nations, the European Union and the World Bank, Reuters reports.
The Interim Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (IRDNA) said that $53.2 billion is needed for recovery and reconstruction over the next 10 years, with $20 billion needed in the first three.
The Zionist regime’s genocidal campaign in Gaza has killed more than 48,000 people, according to Gaza health officials, and left the enclave in ruins.
Years of rebuilding work, including clearing unexploded ordinance and millions of tons of rubble lie ahead.
The report, issued amid a fragile ceasefire that began last month, warned that conditions were not yet in place for large-scale recovery and reconstruction work to begin given a lack of clarity about how the enclave would be run after the war and what security arrangements would be in place.
“The speed, scale, and scope of recovery will be shaped by these conditions,” it said.
The IRDNA said that more than 292,000 homes had been destroyed or damaged and 95% of hospitals were non-functional, while the local economy had contracted by 83%.
More than half the total estimated cost of rebuilding, or $29.9 billion, would be required to repair damage to buildings and other infrastructure, including housing, which would require around $15.2 billion to rebuild, it said.
Another $19.1 billion would be needed to make up for social and economic losses, including health, education, commerce and industry sectors devastated in the conflict, it said.
‘Gaza Should Be Rebuilt Without Displacing
Palestinians’
Egypt’s president called on the international community on Wednesday to adopt a plan to rebuild war-torn Gaza without displacing Palestinians, after a proposal by U.S. President Donald Trump angered Arabs with his own vision for the enclave.
“We stressed the importance of the international community adopting a plan to reconstruct the Gaza Strip without displacing Palestinians — I repeat, without displacing Palestinians from their lands,” President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi told a press conference with Spain’s prime minister in Madrid.
Trump has proposed a plan to redevelop the tiny enclave into an international beach resort after resettling its Palestinian inhabitants. He called on Jordan and Egypt to take in Palestinians.
Egypt and Jordan, along with other Arab states, rejected the plan and said they will work on an alternative to counter Trump’s proposal, but there are no signs they are making serious progress.