UN Says Gaza Reconstruction Can Take 80 Years, Cost $40BN

Israel's genocidal war has left more rubble inside the small coastal enclave than Russian attacks have left in Ukraine since 2022

Repairing the vast damage Israel has caused in Gaza during its genocidal war is expected to take approximately 80 years if the pace follows the trend of previous conflicts, according to an assessment released on 2 May by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

However, if the trend is broken and construction materials are delivered “five times faster” than in 2021 – the last time Israel conducted a sustained carpet bombing campaign of Gaza – reconstruction efforts could be done “by 2040.”

Abdullah al-Dardari, the Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Arab States, told The National on Thursday that the agency estimates Gaza’s reconstruction will cost nearly $40 billion.

“Some donors have to be aware that they will have to take a risk by investing a little bit of money,” he told the Emirati news agency. “That’s why we said let’s have $2 billion [at first], a process that allows us to provide [a] dignified livelihood for up to a million Palestinians, that will push the number to up to $3 billion, but still, it’s within reasonable means.”

“We are faced with a dilemma, but no one is willing to invest big amounts of money in Gaza before they see a serious, credible peace process. But to see a serious and credible peace process, again, we don’t know what that would take,” Dardari added.

The UNDP says that over 70 percent of homes in Gaza have been destroyed by Israel over the past six months, warning that the figure could reach 80 or 90 percent as the war rages on. Moreover, the agency says that civil services and communities in the strip “no longer have any type of machinery, they cannot manage solid waste, they cannot provide any municipal services.”

“Unlike previous wars, the destruction in Gaza today is unprecedented in scope and scale and coupled with the loss of homes, livelihoods, natural resources, infrastructure as well as institutional capacities, may have deep and systemic impacts for decades to come,” Rola Dashti, the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), said in a statement on Thursday.

🔗SOURCE ➡️ The Cradle

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