Over $53B needed to rebuild Gaza: World Bank, UN, EU

ISTANBUL

A joint report by the World Bank, UN, and EU estimates that rebuilding the Gaza Strip will require $53.2 billion over the next decade, highlighting the severe economic toll of the Israel's genocidal war on the Palestinian enclave.

Titled Gaza and West Bank Interim Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (IRDNA), the report detailed widespread damage across nearly all sectors of the Palestinian economy, along with the urgent need for recovery and reconstruction.

“Damages to physical structures alone are estimated at about $30 billion,” the report said, adding that housing was by far the hardest hit sector, accounting for 53% of total damages, followed by commerce and industry at 20%.

The report also noted that economic losses from reduced productivity, foregone revenues, and operating costs are estimated at $19 billion, with health, education and commerce bearing the biggest toll.


According to the report, nearly all economic activity in Gaza has ceased, causing prices to surge by over 300% in one year, with food prices alone soaring up by 450%.


Gaza’s economy is expected to contract by 83% in 2024, reducing its contribution to the Palestinian economy to just 3%, despite being home to 40% of the population, it said, adding that the West Bank is also facing economic hardships, with a projected contraction of 16% this year.


A ceasefire agreement between Israeli and Palestinian resistance fractions took effect in Gaza on Jan. 19, halting Israel’s genocidal war, which has killed nearly 48,300 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and left the enclave in ruins.


Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.


Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.


US President Donald Trump has announced a proposal to “take over” Gaza and resettle its Palestinian inhabitants to develop it into what he called “the Riviera of the Middle East,” an idea vehemently rejected by the Palestinians, Arab countries, and many Western nations, who say it amounts to ethnic cleansing.


Egypt said it has prepared a “comprehensive” plan to rebuild Gaza without displacing its Palestinian inhabitants. Cairo is scheduled to host an emergency Arab summit on March 4 to discuss the plan that counters Trump’s proposal.


Arab leaders will convene in Riyadh on Feb. 20 to discuss their response to Trump’s proposed plan for Gaza and to coordinate a collective Arab stance on the US initiative.