A UN official said this Thursday that due to the devastating effects of Israel’s attacks, the reconstruction of Gaza would need at least $20 billion if the war ends today.
The UN official Richard Kozul-Wright, the head of the Trade and Development Agency at the United Nations (UNCTAD), said during a UN conference in New York this Thursday that the war effects in Gaza have been so devastating so far that reconstructing the war-stricken areas, at least $20 billion is needed, provided that the war ends today.
“We are talking about around $20 billion if it stops now,” Kozul-Wright Thursday morning on the sidelines of a UN meeting in Geneva, adding that “the damage is already four times that sustained in Gaza during the seven-week war in 2014.”
The UNCTAD director also noted that reconstructing Gaza and saving it from “the devastation caused by four months of an indiscriminate Israeli bombing campaign” would require what he described as “a new Marshall Plan”.
The Marshall Plan was a foreign aid package introduced in 1948 by the US to Western European countries to save them from the financial effects of World War II that began in 1939 and ended in 1945.
Explaining that the $20 billion estimate he made was “an account based on satellite images and other information,” Kozul-Wright added that a more precise figure is needed which would require researchers to be allowed to enter Gaza and give a better account of the scale of destructions happened in the besieged Strip.
The latest images taken by Western satellites show that between 144,000 and 175,000 buildings across the entire Gaza Strip have been damaged or demolished due to Israeli bombardments since October 7. This accounts for 50 to 60 percent of all the buildings located in Gaza.
For fear of life, more than 1.7 million people from Gaza, which means above 80 percent of Gaza’s population, have been forcibly displaced since the war erupted.
According to the UN, of all this huge displaced population, nearly half have crammed in the far southern end of Gaza in the city of Rafah, a city that has been targeted by Israeli jet fighters since the beginning of this week.
Speaking of the time required to rebuild Gaza economically, the UN official noted that “the devastation has been so complete that it would take until 2092 for Gaza’s economy to regain its pre-conflict size if hostilities end immediately.”
How probable is the end of the nightmare for Gazans?
Although rebuilding Gaza is a long and costly process that requires so much money and so much time, what makes matters even worse is that there is no prospect for the end of the war yet.
While even Israel’s allies are now voicing their opposition to the latest attacks by Israeli jet fighters on the densely-populated Rafah city, mere words cannot help Palestinians.
This Thursday, for example, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand issued a joint statement and expressed their serious concern over Israel’s planned ground assault on Rafah.
“We are gravely concerned by indications that Israel is planning a ground offensive into Rafah. A military operation into Rafah would be catastrophic,” the joint statement read, adding that “we urge the Israeli government not to go down this path. There is simply nowhere else for civilians to go.”
Similar statements were issued by Germany and France a day before, pointing out that launching an offensive on Rafah under these conditions would be a humanitarian catastrophe.”
But the time for mere words and no action has come to an end in Gaza.
Despite the above-mentioned reassuring statements by many countries around the world in support for Palestine, Gazans now need real help and the clock for them is ticking fast.
The situation in this regard is alarming. Just to give an example, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the main organ through which foreign aids arrive to Palestinians, has announced that it is experiencing worst days thanks to the US-led aid cuts that happened early this month.
Addressing the challenge, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said during a news conference in Ireland Thursday that the countries that recently suspended financial support for UNRWA should urgently rescind that decision before it is too late.
“Our operation will start to be compromised as from March, but April will be the month where we will be under deep, deep, deep negative cashflow,” Lazzarini said, adding that the agency is facing an “existential threat.” The US, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, the Netherlands, and Austria are among the group of Western nations that cut funding for UNRWA last month.
