Gaza reconstruction could cost $71.4 billion, Oxfam report says

Reconstructing Gaza will require an immense $71.4 billion, a sum seven times greater than all previous reconstruction costs combined, according to a new report by Oxfam. The report, titled "Building Gaza Anew," frames Gaza's recovery not as charity but as a matter of rights and reparations, stressing the necessity of Palestinian leadership throughout the process.

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Gaza has never been allowed to finish rebuilding. A decade after Israel’s 2014 offensive on Gaza, families are still waiting for homes that never came; and then the bombs returned.

Oxfam's findings indicate that recovery needs following past conflicts in 2008-2009, 2014, and 2021 amounted to approximately $10 billion in today's exchange rates. A more recent assessment by the UN-EU-World Bank in April 2026 placed total damage and economic losses in Gaza at $57.9 billion, with the $71.4 billion figure representing the decade-long recovery requirement.

Amitabh Behar, Oxfam's international executive director, highlighted the prolonged suffering, stating that families are still awaiting homes destroyed in the 2014 offensive. The report advocates for a five-year framework centered on "Palestinian ownership at every stage," guided by rights-based principles and a unified national vision encompassing Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. It explicitly rejects models that treat Gaza as a separate entity.

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What was destroyed in Gaza was not merely steel and concrete. Israel eradicated an entire social and economic world, built up over generations, and only Palestinians can rebuild it.

The report also acknowledges intangible losses, such as the destruction of knowledge, care systems, community bonds, and cultural institutions. Mohammad Skaik, PalTrade’s Gaza program manager, asserted that Israel "eradicated an entire social and economic world" and that only Palestinians can rebuild it. Misyef Jamil, a senior researcher at MAS, added that reconstruction is a political task, and any plan devised in foreign capitals would merely be a form of control. The report frames Israel as the obstacle to peace, accusing it of committing "genocide" and employing concepts like "domicide" and "sociocide" to describe the extensive destruction.

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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.