GENEVA

UN experts on Monday said any effort to reconstruct Gaza must be guided by international law and human rights standards, warning against foreign-imposed plans driven by “neo-colonial interests.”

“The right of Palestinians to self-determination is inalienable, it is not a conditional privilege,” the experts said in a statement, stressing that decisions about Gaza’s future “should be in the hands of Palestinians.”

The statement was endorsed by several UN human rights experts and special rapporteurs covering housing, displacement, food, water, and other related rights.

They said residents must be able to remain or return voluntarily and safely to their land and properties, and that reconstruction choices “should not be imposed by foreign powers.”

The experts cautioned leaders against treating Gaza as a commercial opportunity. “Leaders must stop speculating about Gaza as a real estate paradise and see it for what it is — the war-ravaged homeland of its residents,” they said.

According to estimates, at least 92% of Gaza’s housing units were destroyed or damaged between October 2023 and October 2025.

A new analysis by the UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, cited by the experts, concluded that Israel’s widespread destruction of housing, referred to as “domicide,” amounts to war crimes and may reach the threshold of crimes against humanity and genocide.

They said: “Member states must ensure that they do not support decisions and actions contrary to international law and that ‘redevelopment’ of Gaza does not further violate the human rights of its population.”