War between Israel and Hamas: US attacks Houthis again as tensions rise in the region
The chairman of the Palestinian Investment Fund estimated Wednesday that it would cost at least $15 billion to rebuild destroyed homes in the Gaza Strip.
Mohammad Mustafa, chairman of the fund — a state-owned company controlled by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank — said during a lecture at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that it would cost about $100,000 to rebuild a single housing unit. and at least 350,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed. Rebuilding even half of it would cost $15 billion, he said.
Mr Mustafa did not say how he arrived at his estimates, although he said the number of units destroyed was based on “international reports”.
Mr Mustafa, when asked, declined to give a figure for the total price tag for Gaza's rehabilitation, saying it was too early to provide an estimate. He also said that rebuilding Gaza would require rebuilding damaged or destroyed hospitals and other infrastructure, not just housing.
Like other Palestinian officials, Mr. Mustafa also said that reconstruction can only begin after the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza abates and Israel ends its occupation of the Palestinian territories.
“The financial needs are enormous, but again, as we said before, that money will not solve Gaza's problems,” he said, speaking to a room of about 60 people. “It will take more than that. Political solutions are needed, but also a logistics revolution.”
The Israeli military campaign in Gaza has done just that left many towns in the enclave in ruins and has killed more than 24,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza.
Since the start of the war on October 7, when Hamas attacked Israeli cities and killed 1,200 people, Israeli airstrikes have leveled many people. neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip, especially in the north.
Israeli tanks do farming communities bulldozedand houses have been demolished by Israeli soldiers, according to video and satellite images verified by The New York Times. The United Nations estimated in mid-December that, based on satellite images, about 60 percent of homes in Gaza had been damaged or destroyed.
It remains unclear who will govern Gaza after the war, let alone who will oversee and pay for its reconstruction. The United States has proposed letting the Palestinian Authority manage the enclave, as it does in parts of the West Bank, but the Israeli government has not agreed and has insisted that Israel must maintain control over security there.
Last week, Antony J. Blinken, the US Secretary of State, said this after a round of shuttle diplomacy Arab countries have not agreed to pay for the reconstruction of Gaza, although they might consider doing so if Israel agrees to a path toward a Palestinian state. Qatar was previously a major financier in Gaza's reconstruction efforts.
Both Palestinian and Israeli officials have said it will take an international effort to rebuild Gaza.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant recently said this called for a “multinational task force” to oversee Gaza's post-war reconstruction and economic development, should Israel defeat Hamas. Tuesday a Palestinian diplomat accused Israel has tried to make the Gaza Strip uninhabitable, saying reconstruction would require a “massive international humanitarian effort.”