2026-06-12
Gaza Reconstruction.. Between International Funding Commitments, Complex Governance, and Multipolar Decision-Making (2023–2026)
Since October 7, 2023, the file of Gaza’s reconstruction has shifted from a humanitarian headline focused on rebuilding what the war has destroyed into a broad international political and economic dossier. It now involves intertwined calculations of financing and governance arrangements, with roles distributed among the United Nations, the World Bank, the European Union, and Arab states, alongside official Palestinian actors—primarily the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah—and advanced discussions about a possible transitional administrative mechanism within the Gaza Strip.
This transformation is not merely procedural; it is directly linked to the unprecedented scale of destruction documented by multiple international reports. According to the joint assessment issued by the United Nations, the World Bank, and the European Union in 2026, Gaza’s recovery and reconstruction needs are estimated at around $71.4 billion over ten years. Of this, approximately $26.3 billion is required urgently within the first 18 months to restore minimum essential services and critical infrastructure. The same estimates indicate that direct physical damages amount to about $35.2 billion, in addition to $22.7 billion in economic and social losses resulting from halted production and the complete disruption of the economic cycle.
These figures, according to the United Nations, do not merely reflect the scale of physical destruction; they also highlight the nature of the coming phase, in which reconstruction is no longer an engineering project but a comprehensive process of rebuilding an entire system of life, economy, and institutions.
On the ground, UN reports indicate that hundreds of thousands of housing units across the Gaza Strip have been fully or partially destroyed, while a large share of hospitals, schools, and public service facilities have gone out of service. Water, sewage, and electricity networks have also suffered extensive damage, to the point where large parts of the Strip now require complete reconstruction of infrastructure rather than simple rehabilitation.
At this level of collapse, the first phase of reconstruction begins with what international institutions describe as the “debris removal phase,” which is considered one of the most complex stages in logistical and engineering terms, due to the estimated tens of millions of tons of rubble, and the need for heavy machinery, safe access routes, and designated waste processing sites—elements that remain largely unavailable at present.
In parallel, the international financing framework has begun to take shape. The United Nations, in cooperation with the World Bank and the European Union, is leading the process of needs assessment and program design through what are known as Damage and Needs Assessment reports. These reports have become the primary reference for defining reconstruction priorities and allocating resources, and they form the basis of the $71.4 billion estimate.
Within this context, the World Bank has proposed establishing a multi-donor reconstruction fund for Gaza, designed as a centralized financial platform to pool international contributions and channel them into targeted projects, including infrastructure, housing, private sector support, and the restoration of essential services. This model aims to reduce fragmentation in funding while linking expenditures to strict international oversight mechanisms.
At the Arab level, parallel reconstruction initiatives have emerged, led primarily by Egypt alongside several Gulf states, within a multi-year vision aimed at rebuilding the Strip in phases. Some Arab proposals estimate the total financing requirement at over $50 billion, distributed across projects involving rubble removal, residential rehabilitation, infrastructure repair, and support for key economic sectors.
However, despite their political and financial announcements, these initiatives remain contingent on several practical conditions, foremost among them the existence of a clear administrative framework to manage Gaza during the reconstruction phase, as well as transparent mechanisms for fund allocation and project implementation. As a result, a significant portion of these commitments remains in a phase of political and organizational suspension.
Against this backdrop, governance emerges as the most complex challenge in the reconstruction process. Managing a project of this magnitude is not only about financing, but about determining who holds executive authority on the ground, how projects are distributed, and who oversees implementation.
Currently, multiple layers of governance intersect in this file: the Palestinian Authority alongside UN agencies managing humanitarian and service sectors, the World Bank handling financial and technical aspects, in addition to the formation of a “National Committee for Gaza Administration.”
At the level of actual funding, there remains a clear gap between announced financial commitments and funds that have been effectively disbursed into on-the-ground projects. A significant portion of international and Arab pledges still exists as political declarations, while actual disbursement is tied to conditions related to security stability, administrative structures, and oversight mechanisms.
In this context, funding is no longer merely a financial figure but a complex political and administrative process shaped by international and regional balances and managed through multiple channels, which slows implementation during the early stages of reconstruction.
Economically, Gaza’s reconstruction cannot be separated from the restoration of its economic cycle. The local market, which has collapsed due to the war, requires full reactivation of productive sectors such as agriculture, industry, trade, and services. However, this process depends on the availability of raw materials, the reopening of supply chains, and the stability of transportation and trade flows—all of which remain tied to the broader political and security environment.
UN estimates indicate that the housing and infrastructure sectors account for the largest share of reconstruction costs, followed by essential services. This reflects the priorities of the initial phase, which focuses on restoring minimum living conditions before transitioning to long-term development projects.
In conclusion, Gaza’s reconstruction after 2023 appears not as a technical or engineering project, but as a comprehensive restructuring of the entire system of life in the Strip, where geography, economics, politics, and international administration intersect. Amid massive figures, complex governance structures, and multiple actors, the core challenge lies not only in securing funding, but in the ability to translate that funding into effective implementation on the ground within a still-unstable environment governed by multiple and evolving political and administrative scenarios..