Gaza Rebuilding Could Cost $70 Billion, UN Says

Destroyed buildings successful Gaza city. Credit: Mohammed Saber / EPA via AMNA

The standard of devastation successful Gaza has reached unprecedented levels, according to a caller study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The appraisal estimates that rebuilding the enclave volition outgo astir $70 billion, with an estimated 55 cardinal tons of debris near behind—enough to screen New York’s Central Park successful rubble 40 feet precocious (12 meters) oregon to physique 13 Great Pyramids of Giza.

UNDP: 80% of Gaza metropolis damaged oregon destroyed

Satellite imagery analyzed betwixt September 22 and 23 shows that astir 80% of each buildings successful Gaza City person been damaged, including astir 17,734 structures wholly destroyed, the UNDP reported.

“The estimated standard of the harm and debris crossed Gaza stands astatine astir 55 cardinal tons,” said Jaco Cilliers, Special Representative of the UNDP Administrator for Palestinian assistance. “Beyond the symbolic examples similar Central Park oregon the pyramids, this illustrates the sheer magnitude of the situation ahead,” helium added during a UN property briefing from Jerusalem.

Rebuilding whitethorn instrumentality decades

A associated appraisal by the United Nations, the European Union, and the World Bank places the full reconstruction outgo astatine $70 cardinal arsenic of September—up from $53 cardinal successful February. Cilliers said astir $20 cardinal volition beryllium required wrong the adjacent 3 years, with the remainder apt needed implicit respective decades.

“This is not lone a fiscal challenge,” helium noted, “but a logistical and humanitarian 1 that volition span generations.”

UN and Red Cross telephone for contiguous entree to Gaza

The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) person urged the contiguous reopening of each borderline crossings into Gaza to facilitate the transportation of humanitarian assistance pursuing the ceasefire.

“As acold arsenic we know, not each crossings person reopened. That remains the main obstacle,” said Christian Cardon, ICRC spokesperson successful Geneva. “Humanitarian organizations, including the Red Cross, are calling for urgent access.”

Standing alongside him, Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), emphasized that crossings damaged during the struggle indispensable beryllium restored and reopened without delay.

190,000 tons of assistance awaiting entry

Laerke stressed that a important magnitude of humanitarian assistance is already prepared but cannot beryllium delivered owed to entree restrictions.

“We presently person astir 190,000 tons of supplies acceptable for shipment—mainly successful Jordan and Egypt,” he said. “The situation isn’t the availability of aid; it’s the quality to get it in.”