Gaza: Rebuilding Will Take 30-40 Billion Dollars

The war that Israel has been waging in Gaza for the past 7 months is causing unprecedented destruction. Entire cities have been almost completely leveled, communications and public services destroyed, and the UN estimates it will cost between 30 and 40 billion dollars to rebuild.

“Estimates by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to rebuild the entire sector exceed $30 billion, and possibly as much as $40 billion. The scale of destruction is enormous and unprecedented. This is a challenge the international community has not faced since the Second World War,” said Abdallah al-Dardari, Director of UNDP’s Regional Office for the Arab States.

If rebuilding were to proceed “normally,” al-Dardari explained, it would take decades to return Gaza to the state it was in before October 7, 2023. On that day, Hamas attacked Israel, provoking brutal and unending retaliation.

The Palestinian people, torn by mourning, hunger, extreme poverty, lack of all kinds of services, cannot wait that long, so “it is important to act quickly in order to move people into decent housing and to get their lives back on track economically, socially, medically, and educationally. This is our priority and should be achieved within the first three years after the cessation of hostilities,” explained the UNDP representative.

It is estimated that the weight of the rubble in Gaza is about 37 million tons, with 72% of all residential buildings completely or partially destroyed. The Hamas-led Gaza Health Ministry puts the death toll at about 35,000.