The reconstruction of Gaza is estimated at $71.4 billion — why security conditions are as important as money for Israel

The reconstruction of the Gaza Strip over the next ten years will require $71.4 billion. This is the estimate presented in a joint report by the European Union, the UN, and the World Bank. It is not just a large international aid program, but a project of a scale that directly affects both Israel and the entire Middle East.

According to the data presented in the material, more than a third of this amount needs to be mobilized in the first 18 months. At the initial stage, $26.3 billion is required. These funds should primarily go towards launching basic services, restoring critically important civil infrastructure, and returning minimal living conditions.

This concerns water, electricity, sewage, transport, and utility systems, without which neither medical care, normal humanitarian logistics, nor even partial return of people to normal life is possible.

Why money does not solve everything automatically

The authors of the assessment separately emphasize: even colossal funding by itself does not guarantee results. Large-scale reconstruction of Gaza is impossible without a sustainable ceasefire, access for humanitarian missions, and freedom of movement across the territory.

There is another factor that often remains in the shadow of loud figures. Before full-scale construction begins, the area must be cleared of debris, destroyed structures, and unexploded ordnance. This is not a formality, but a basic condition for any further work. That is why the discussion about tens of billions of dollars actually begins not with construction, but with security, engineering clearance, and territorial control.

For the Israeli audience, this aspect is crucial. Any post-war reconstruction plan in Gaza immediately runs into the question: who will guarantee that the invested funds do not turn into new infrastructure for war.

What is happening with the population and civil infrastructure

According to the data provided, more than 1.9 million people have been effectively displaced within their own region. This is about 80% of the pre-war population of the Gaza Strip. The scale of the humanitarian crisis is described not by general formulas, but by specific figures, and they look extremely severe.

About 60% of residents have completely lost their homes.
77% of the population is at risk of acute hunger.
94% of hospitals are destroyed or seriously damaged.
Half of the key medicines are completely depleted.

These indicators show that it is not only about the consequences of the war as such, but about the systemic destruction of the environment in which people can live at all. The material emphasizes that many families exist in makeshift tents, and food shortages have become chronic.

Against this background, mortality continues to rise. According to health structures controlled by Hamas, after the start of the ceasefire regime, another 777 Palestinians were killed as a result of strikes, and the total number of victims, it is claimed, has exceeded 72,000 people. These figures themselves remain part of a politically sensitive information environment, but even without disputes over the exact final data, one thing is clear: the scale of human losses and destruction is already such that the restoration of the region has become a matter not of months, but at least many years.

Why this topic is sensitive specifically for Israel

For Israel, the discussion of Gaza’s reconstruction never boils down to humanitarian arithmetic. Any international initiative in this direction immediately raises questions about control, demilitarization, distribution of aid, and the risk of Hamas’s resurgence.

That is why in the Israeli information field, the topic sounds different than in some European or international structures. Here they discuss not only the size of the necessary amount but also who will administer the resources, who will be responsible for the transparency of supplies, and whether it is possible at all to separate civil reconstruction from infrastructure that terrorist structures can reuse.

In this context, NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency draws attention to the key political nerve of the entire discussion: without answering the question about the future security regime in Gaza, any financial model will remain more of a declaration than a real plan.

Israel’s position and the deadlock in negotiations

The Israeli side, as noted in the material, does not accept the formulations about a complete humanitarian collapse. Israeli officials claim that Gaza’s medical system continues to function partially thanks to UN field hospitals and external assistance.

Moreover, according to Israeli data, about 600 trucks with humanitarian supplies enter the sector daily. This is an important argument of official Jerusalem in the dispute with international criticism.

However, along with this, Israel insists on another problem: a significant part of the aid, according to its version, falls under Hamas’s influence. Israel accuses the group of benefiting from supplies, taxing cargoes, controlling the black market, and using disinformation as a tool of pressure in negotiations. For the Israeli side, this is not a secondary plot, but a central explanation of why even a large volume of aid does not always change the situation on the ground as external observers expect.

What is happening with the peace process

Negotiations on Gaza by the end of March have practically reached a deadlock. The text links this to the war between the US, Israel, and Iran, which sharply complicated the diplomatic background and diverted attention from previous mediation mechanisms.

At the same time, the White House rejected the thesis of a complete cessation of the negotiation process. That is, formally, the window for new agreements remains open, but real progress looks extremely limited.

The reminder of last year’s agreement between the US and international mediators on a ceasefire shows how quickly even multi-stage diplomatic constructions lose stability in the Middle Eastern reality. The first stage of the 20-point peace plan was launched, followed by the announcement of the transition to the second stage — the creation of the Peace Council. But in practice, the region again found itself at a point where political declarations exist separately, and military and humanitarian reality — separately.

That is why the amount of $71.4 billion today sounds not only as an economic estimate. For Israel, it is also a question of whether Gaza’s reconstruction is possible at all without a new architecture of control, in which reconstruction does not become a prologue to the next round of war.