By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON, – Top finance officials from around the world this week underscored their willingness to help rebuild the Palestinian enclave of Gaza as the World Bank and United Nations worked to finalize a new cost estimate of $70 billion.

Members of the ministerial-level Development Committee that advises the World Bank and International Monetary Fund discussed the challenges involved during a meeting on Thursday, World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said.

“We’re all very, very appreciative that there’s a ceasefire and that the killing has stopped, that hostages have been brought home, that Palestinians can get food,” Okonjo-Iweala said. “We hope that it will just lead to the next phase and that that will happen peacefully.”

A U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants has halted two years of devastating war, but U.N. officials say aid convoys are struggling to reach famine-hit areas of north Gaza due to war-damaged roads and the closure of key routes.

The U.N. World Food Program said 560 metric tons of food has entered the Gaza Strip per day on average since the ceasefire deal, but that was still well below the scale of need.

Okonjo-Iweala said the Development Committee discussed the reconstruction of Gaza and what form that might take, with World Bank officials expressing willingness to work with people in the region and others.

“We want to help. So we just hope that this means a way forward and normalization of life … so that people get back to their normal lives,” she said. “It will take a long time.”

Haoliang Xu, acting administrator of the U.N. Development Program, told Reuters that the conditions for reconstruction were not yet in place. He said plans were taking shape for a reconstruction conference, but the timing was not yet set.

“The problem is where do you start?” Xu said, citing the latest U.N. estimates that over 61 million tonnes of rubble had to be removed from the area.

“We are capable, we can do it, but the conditions have to be right. We need the hostages released, the bodies released,” he said. Shelter was another huge need, he said, noting that winter was coming.

The World Bank, U.N. and European Union had estimated in February that it would cost more than $50 billion to rebuild Gaza, and are finalizing a new interim estimate of $70 billion.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza was launched in response to the Hamas-led attack on Oct 7, 2023 in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s operation has killed more than 67,000 people, according to Gaza health officials, and left the enclave in ruins.

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