War-Ravaged Gaza Faces Multi-Billion Dollar Reconstruction Challenge

Destroyed buildings are seen through the window of an airplane from the US Air Force overflying the Gaza Strip, on March 14, 2024. (AP)
Destroyed buildings are seen through the window of an airplane from the US Air Force overflying the Gaza Strip, on March 14, 2024. (AP)
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War-Ravaged Gaza Faces Multi-Billion Dollar Reconstruction Challenge

Destroyed buildings are seen through the window of an airplane from the US Air Force overflying the Gaza Strip, on March 14, 2024. (AP)
Destroyed buildings are seen through the window of an airplane from the US Air Force overflying the Gaza Strip, on March 14, 2024. (AP)

Billions of dollars will be needed to rebuild Gaza after the war between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, according to assessments from the United Nations.

Israel and Hamas agreed to a deal to halt fighting in the enclave and swap Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, an official briefed on the agreement said on Wednesday.

Here is a breakdown of the destruction in Gaza from the conflict prompted by the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, which at the time ruled the Palestinian enclave.

HOW MANY CASUALTIES ARE THERE?

The Hamas attack on Israel killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's retaliation has killed more than 46,000 people, according to Gaza's health ministry.

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO CLEAR THE RUBBLE?

The United Nations warned in October that removing 42 million tons of rubble left in the aftermath of Israel's bombardment could take years and cost $1.2 billion. A UN estimate from April 2024 suggested it would take 14 years to clear the rubble.

The debris is believed to be contaminated with asbestos, with some refugee camps struck during the war known to have been built with the material. The rubble also likely holds human remains. The Palestinian Ministry of Health estimated in May that 10,000 bodies were missing under the debris.

HOW MANY BUILDINGS HAVE BEEN DESTROYED?

Rebuilding Gaza's shattered homes will take at least until 2040, but could drag on for many decades, according to a UN report released last year.

Two-thirds of Gaza's pre-war structures - over 170,000 buildings - have been damaged or flattened, according to UN satellite data (UNOSAT) in December. That amounts to around 69% of the total structures of the Gaza Strip.

Within the count are a total of 245,123 housing units, according to an estimate from UNOSAT. Currently, over 1.8 million people are in need of emergency shelter in Gaza, the UN humanitarian office said.

WHAT IS THE INFRASTRUCTURE DAMAGE?

The estimated damage to infrastructure totaled $18.5 billion as of end-January 2024, affecting residential buildings, commerce, industry, and essential services such as education, health, and energy, a UN-World Bank report said.

An update by the UN humanitarian office this month showed that less than a quarter of the pre-war water supplies were available, while at least 68% of the road network has been damaged.

HOW WILL GAZA FEED ITSELF?

More than half of Gaza's agricultural land, crucial for feeding the war-ravaged territory's hungry population, has been degraded by conflict, satellite images analyzed by the United Nations show.

The data reveals a rise in the destruction of orchards, field crops and vegetables in the Palestinian enclave, where hunger is widespread after 15 months of Israeli bombardment.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said last year that 15,000 cattle, or over 95%, of the total had been slaughtered or died since the conflict began and nearly half the sheep.

WHAT ABOUT SCHOOLS, UNIVERSITIES, RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS?

Palestinian data shows that the conflict has led to the destruction of over 200 government facilities, 136 schools and universities, 823 mosques and three churches. Many hospitals have been damaged during the conflict, with only 17 out of 36 units partially functional as of January, the UN humanitarian office's report showed.

Amnesty International's Crisis Evidence Lab has highlighted the extent of destruction along Gaza's eastern boundary. As of May 2024, over 90% of the buildings in this area, including more than 3,500 structures, were either destroyed or severely damaged.



How Trump’s Gaza Proposals Could Violate International Law

 Buildings lie in ruin in Gaza amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel's border with Gaza, Israel February 5, 2025. (Reuters)
Buildings lie in ruin in Gaza amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel's border with Gaza, Israel February 5, 2025. (Reuters)
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How Trump’s Gaza Proposals Could Violate International Law

 Buildings lie in ruin in Gaza amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel's border with Gaza, Israel February 5, 2025. (Reuters)
Buildings lie in ruin in Gaza amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel's border with Gaza, Israel February 5, 2025. (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump said he wants to resettle Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt and Jordan, demolish remaining buildings to make way for a Riviera-style development project and place the occupied territory under US "ownership".

Forcing people to leave their land and taking over territory are prohibited by longstanding treaties. Following is a look at the ramifications of Trump's plans under international law.

TAKING CONTROL OF TERRITORY

Trump said "the US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too.... I do see a long-term ownership position."

The Gaza Strip is recognized by the United Nations and its highest court, the International Court of Justice, as part of the Palestinian territories under Israeli military occupation.

International law prohibits the seizure of territory by force, which is defined as an act of aggression. The UN Charter says: "All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state."

"Ultimately, President Trump’s proposal amounts to a blatant rejection of the core tenets of international law that have operated since at least the end of World War II and the adoption of the UN Charter," said Assistant Professor of International Human Rights Law Michael Becker at Trinity College, Dublin.

Were the United States to lay claim to the Gaza Strip, "this would amount to the unlawful annexation of territory. Nor does Israel have any right to cede Palestinian territory to the United States or to anyone else," said Becker.

Janina Dill, co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict and a specialist in international humanitarian law, said: "There are no circumstances in which it is permissible to seize territory by force. The argument that it benefits populations there or elsewhere is legally meaningless even if it were factually correct."

Under the UN Charter, responsibility for identifying acts of aggression and responding to them falls to the Security Council, where the United States is a permanent, veto-wielding member.

Aggression is also one of the crimes that can be prosecuted before the International Criminal Court. The United States and Israel are not members of the ICC, but the court has asserted jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories, including over acts committed there by countries that are not members.

MOVING PALESTINIANS OUT

"Forcibly resettling the Palestinians of Gaza would constitute the crime against humanity of deportation or forcible transfer," said Dill.

Trump has said Palestinian residents of Gaza would want to leave because it has become dangerous. But so far there has been no indication that the 2.3 million residents wish to go.

The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 prohibits the forcible transfer or deportation of protected persons in occupied territory.

According to the founding document of the International Criminal Court, the Rome Statute, "the term 'forcibly' is not restricted to physical force, but may include threat of force or coercion, such as that caused by fear of violence, duress, detention, psychological oppression or abuse of power against such person or persons or another person, or by taking advantage of a coercive environment."

Dill said it was also likely that removing Palestinians from Gaza would require carrying out other large-scale crimes against them.

"The scale of such an undertaking, the level of coercion and force required mean this would very likely meet the threshold of a large scale and systematic attack against the civilian population."

PREVENTING GAZANS FROM RETURNING

Trump has said that after Gaza residents leave, he does not envision them returning.

Preventing them from doing so would also amount to a violation of international legal principles under which displaced populations retain a right to return to lands they have fled.

Even a lawful evacuation by an occupying power "cannot involve sending people to a third country and it cannot be a pretext for ethnic cleansing or removing the population from the territory indefinitely or on a permanent basis," said Becker.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Al Arabiya TV that taking the population out of Gaza would "create a high risk that you make the Palestinian state impossible forever."