UN Trade Body: Gaza Post-war Reconstruction Estimated at $20 Billion

A picture taken from southern Israel shows destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip on February 15, 2024. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)
A picture taken from southern Israel shows destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip on February 15, 2024. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)
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UN Trade Body: Gaza Post-war Reconstruction Estimated at $20 Billion

A picture taken from southern Israel shows destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip on February 15, 2024. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)
A picture taken from southern Israel shows destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip on February 15, 2024. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)

Gaza will need a new "Marshall Plan" to recover from the conflict between Israel and Hamas, a UN 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 UN 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.
According to Reuters, 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 US 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.



Israel’s Spy Chief Gives Details about Exploding Pager Operation against Hezbollah

A photo taken on September 18, 2024, in Beirut's southern suburbs shows the remains of exploded pagers on display at an undisclosed location. (AFP/Getty Images)
A photo taken on September 18, 2024, in Beirut's southern suburbs shows the remains of exploded pagers on display at an undisclosed location. (AFP/Getty Images)
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Israel’s Spy Chief Gives Details about Exploding Pager Operation against Hezbollah

A photo taken on September 18, 2024, in Beirut's southern suburbs shows the remains of exploded pagers on display at an undisclosed location. (AFP/Getty Images)
A photo taken on September 18, 2024, in Beirut's southern suburbs shows the remains of exploded pagers on display at an undisclosed location. (AFP/Getty Images)

The head of Israel's Mossad foreign intelligence agency on Tuesday called the exploding pagers and walkie talkies operation against Hezbollah members in Lebanon and Syria a “turning point of the war,” which gave Israel momentum to deal a heavy blow to Hezbollah.

The devices used by hundreds of Hezbollah members exploded almost simultaneously in two waves on Sept. 17 and 18. The attack killed at least 12 people — including two young children — and wounded thousands more.

Mossad chief David Barnea spoke while accepting an award for the operation from a Tel Aviv think tank, the Institute for National Security Studies.

Barnea said the first 500 pagers outfitted with explosives arrived in Lebanon just a few weeks before the war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, but that officials involved in the operation decided to wait to detonate them until more pagers had arrived and were in use.

He said the operation involving the walkie talkies with explosives started more than a decade ago, while the pager operation began in 2022.