UN report uncovers $53bn Gaza rebuild as us eyes control

"The report estimates the recovery and reconstruction needs in the short, medium and long term across the Gaza Strip at $53.142 billion. Of these, the near-term needs in the first three years are estimated to be around $20.568 billion," wrote UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the report for the General Assembly.

In a resolution adopted in December 2024, which called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the Assembly requested the Secretary-General to present an assessment of the short-term, medium-term, and long-term needs of the Gaza Strip within two months.

Although it has not yet been possible to fully assess the complete extent of the needs in the current situation of the Gaza Strip, a rapid temporary assessment gives preliminary indications of a significant scale of rebuilding needs for this territory, the report highlighted.

According to the report, as of October 2023, "over 60% of homes" have been destroyed. The housing sector will require about 30% of the resources needed for reconstruction, equating to 15.2 billion dollars.

Other sectors requiring funds include commerce and industry (6.9 billion), healthcare (6.9 billion), agriculture (4.2 billion), social protection (4.2 billion), transport (2.9 billion), water and sanitary infrastructure (2.7 billion), and education (2.6 billion).

The report also notes particularly high costs for the environmental protection sector (1.9 billion USD), due to the large amount of debris containing unexploded ordnance and high costs associated with debris removal.

The UN estimates that as a result of the conflict "more than 50 million tons of debris have been generated in Gaza because of the conflict, within which human remains are buried alongside unexploded ordnance, asbestos and other hazardous substances."

Guterres also emphasised that "any viable recovery and reconstruction efforts must be firmly rooted in a broader political and security framework that can address the effects of the war and the humanitarian catastrophe and lay the foundations for rebuilding Gaza as an integral part of a fully independent, democratic, contiguous, viable and sovereign Palestinian State."

"Critically, the Palestinian Authority must be at the centre of planning for and the implementation of recovery and reconstruction in Gaza," wrote Guterres in the report completed on 30 January this year, prior to the declaration by US President Donald Trump, who announced that he wants to "take possession" of the territory.

The American president shocked the Middle East and the rest of the world with his declaration that the United States would take control of the Gaza Strip. His plan is straightforward: he would like to expel Palestinians from this territory and turn it into the "Riviera of the Middle East."

"The USA will take over the Gaza Strip," announced US President Donald Trump at the beginning of February during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He declared that the United States would level the area and create there "unlimited numbers of jobs."

He specified that, according to his "strong recommendation," the Gaza Strip would belong to the United States in the long term and did not rule out sending American soldiers there.

He further commented that the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip "should not go through a process of rebuilding and occupation by the same people that have stood there and fought for it and lived there and died there and lived a miserable existence there," adding that for the residents, it is associated only with "death and destruction." He stated that they should be relocated to neighbouring Arab countries, which would build housing for them at their own expense in "peace and harmony."