Rebuilding Gaza to cost $71bn, must include Palestinians, report finds

Rebuilding Gaza will cost seven times more than all previous rebuilding efforts in Gaza combined in the last two decades, according to a new joint Oxfam report.The devastation from more than two years of war has killed at least 73,000 Palestinians, injured 173,000 and displaced 1.9 million. It has left the Gaza Strip needing an estimated $71.4bn to recover, according to the UN-EU-World Bank Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA) released in April.Human development has been set back by 77 years according to the new report by Oxfam, the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS) and the Palestine Trade Centre (PalTrade), which asserts that the rebuilding of Gaza cannot move forward without direct Palestinian involvement.“Reconstruction is not only a humanitarian task; it is a political one. A plan designed in foreign capitals, however well-funded, would be a cosmetic exercise – simply another form of control over Palestinian land and lives. Our consultations across Gaza carried one unmistakable message: nothing about our future without us,” Misyef Jamil, senior researcher at MAS, said.How much will it cost to rebuild Gaza?In April, the Gaza Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment...