Rebuilding Gaza will cost more than £50bn, says UN and EU | World News

While the focus of many in the Middle East has been on conflicts in Lebanon and Iran, the scale of damage in Gaza is also back under scrutiny. 

A new report from the United Nations and the European Union says that rebuilding Gaza will take more than £50bn.

It says that more than 370,000 homes have been destroyed, half of Gaza’s hospitals are not working and the strip’s economy shrunk by 84% during the Israel-Hamas conflict.

These are some of the starkest findings of the report, designed to assess the scale of both destruction and the work required to restore Gaza over the next decade.

The report, known as the Rapid Damage Needs and Assessment, concludes that 1.9 million people have been displaced, often on multiple occasions, with more than 60% of the population losing their homes, and claims that human development has been “set back by 77 years”.

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It claims that £19.5bn ($26.3bn) is needed over the next 18 months in order to restore essential services, including banking and phone communications, rebuild critical infrastructure – such as schools, hospitals and sanitation – and support Gaza’s economic recovery.

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The report says the “minimum conditions” needed for recovery and reconstruction to succeed are “a sustained ceasefire and adequate security”.

It also calls for unimpeded humanitarian access, free movement of people, goods and reconstruction materials between Gaza and the West Bank, and a “functional, transparent financial system”.