Gaza post-war reconstruction estimated at $20 billion: UN trade body

Gaza will need a new “Marshall Plan” to recover from the conflict between Israel and Hamas, a U.N. trade body official said on Thursday, adding that the damage from the conflict so far amounted to around $20 billion.

Speaking on the sidelines of a U.N. meeting in Geneva, Richard Kozul-Wright, a director at trade body UNCTAD, said the damage was already four times that endured in Gaza during the seven-week war in 2014.

“We are talking about around $20 billion if it stops now,” he said. Kozul-Wright said the estimate was based on satellite images and other information and that a more precise estimate would require researchers to enter Gaza. The reconstruction will require a new “Marshall Plan”, he said, referring to the U.S. plan for Europe’s economic recovery after World War Two.

UNCTAD already said in a report last month that it could take until the closing years of the century for Gaza’s economy to regain its pre-conflict size if hostilities in the Palestinian enclave were to cease immediately.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.