Rebuilding Gaza will cost billions of dollars

Billions of dollars will be needed to rebuild the Gaza Strip after the war between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas.

According to the United Nations (UN) assessment, the reconstruction process will be so costly and will take decades of work.

Israel and Hamas reached an agreement to halt fighting in the enclave and exchange Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, officials in Washington and the Middle East announced.

In October, the United Nations warned that removing the 42 million tons of rubble left by Israeli bombardment could take years and cost 1.2 billion dollars. A UN estimate from April 2024 suggested it would take 14 years to clear the rubble.

The rubble is believed to be contaminated with asbestos, and some of the refugee camps attacked during the war are known to have been built with the material. Human remains are also likely to be found in the rubble. The Palestinian Ministry of Health estimated in May that 10,000 bodies were missing under the rubble.

Rebuilding Gaza's destroyed homes will take at least until 2040 but could take many decades, according to a UN report published last year.

According to UN satellite data (UNOSAT) from December, two-thirds of Gaza's pre-war structures (more than 170,000 buildings) have been damaged or destroyed, representing some 69% of all structures in the Gaza Strip.

According to UNOSAT estimates, there are a total of 245,123 homes in the country. More than 1.8 million people are currently in need of emergency shelter in Gaza, according to the UN humanitarian office.

According to a UN/World Bank report, by the end of January 2024, damage to infrastructure amounted to 18.5 billion dollars, affecting residential buildings, businesses, industries and essential services such as education, health and energy. Since then, damage has continued to accumulate.

An update by the UN humanitarian office this month showed that less than a quarter of pre-war water supplies were available, while at least 68% of the road network has been damaged. 

More than half of Gaza's agricultural land, crucial for feeding the starving population of the war-torn territory, has been degraded by the conflict, satellite images analysed by the UN show. 

The data reveal increased destruction of orchards, field crops and vegetables in the Palestinian enclave, where hunger is widespread after 15 months of Israeli bombardment.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said last year that 15,000 head of livestock, or more than 95% of the total, had been slaughtered or died since the conflict began and almost half of the sheep.

Palestinian data show that the conflict has resulted in the destruction of more than 200 government facilities, 136 schools and universities, 823 mosques and three churches. 

Many hospitals were damaged during the conflict and, as of January, only 17 of 36 units were partially functional, the UN humanitarian office report showed. 

Amnesty International's Crisis Evidence Lab has highlighted the extent of destruction along Gaza's eastern border. As of May 2024, more than 90% of the buildings in the area, including more than 3,500 structures, were destroyed or severely damaged.