Gaza’s $71bn reconstruction will cost seven times all previous rebuilds combined, Oxfam warns
Oxfam and Palestinian organisations hand world leaders a blueprint for Gaza's recovery - one that puts Palestinian ownership and accountability for Israel's genocide at its core.
The $71.4 billion needed to rebuild Gaza is seven times, in real terms, the combined cost of reconstruction after every major Israeli military offensive there over the past two decades, a new joint Oxfam report has found.
Even that figure captures only part of what was destroyed — the physical and economic cost — not the deliberate erasure of the social fabric that holds Gaza together, which will take generations to restore.No amount of funding will ever replace the lives of children, women and men killed throughout this ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Oxfam analysis of successive World Bank, EU and UN assessments shows the scale of the rupture: recovery needs after the 2008-09, 2014 and 2021 wars were around $10 billion in today’s money. Each attempted reconstruction was strangled by blockade, access restrictions and donor shortfalls, then destroyed by the following war.
"The rebuilding of Gaza must only be led by Palestinians, but the construction of homes, hospitals and universities is not enough. It is imperative that accountability for this genocide goes hand in hand with every brick laid. We must emphasise that helping the people of Gaza to restore what was painfully lost will never bring back their loved ones. This landmark report clearly states that governments which armed, funded or shielded Israel’s destruction of Gaza share responsibility for its repair – it is not charity. The only justice for Palestinians will be an end to Israel’s illegal occupation and blockade. Hope must be restored from rubble. The Irish government can lead this process internationally – especially at EU level.”
— Jim Clarken, CEO of Oxfam Ireland
According to the UN-EU-World Bank Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA) of April 2026, Gaza has suffered $57.9 billion in total damage and economic losses, with $71.4 billion required for recovery and reconstruction over the next decade.
More than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed, 173,000 injured, 1.9 million forcibly displaced, and human development set back an estimated 77 years.
In September 2025, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
The report documents how the war has erased what no damage assessment can calculate – Gaza’s knowledge, care systems, environment, and the community bonds, mosques, churches, libraries, and cultural institutions where social life once lived:
Knowledge and memory erased: nearly all schools are destroyed or damaged, universities levelled, thousands of teachers, professors and researchers have been killed, and libraries and archives of Palestinian history lost.
A care system collapsed onto women: around 58,600 households are now headed by women while female unemployment stands at 92 per cent. Oxfam’s latest care research finds most women spend 8 to 12 hours a day – some up to 16 – on unpaid care: queuing from 5am to fill 20 litres of water.
Broken bodies and stripped dignity: around one in four injuries is life-changing, more than 50,000 people need long-term rehabilitation, and an estimated 83 per cent of people with disabilities were forced to abandon their assistive devices.
A land poisoned: orchards that took decades to grow, greenhouses and topsoil have been destroyed; farmland contaminated with heavy metals and explosive residue; the coastal aquifer is collapsing; and raw sewage is flowing into the sea, bringing back once-eradicated diseases including polio.
The report sets out a five-year framework for recovery and rebuilding grounded in Palestinian ownership at every stage, underpinned by rights-based principles and a single national vision linking Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It rejects externally imposed models that sideline Palestinian agency or fragment Palestinian territory, including any international trusteeship over Gaza.
The report sets a clear test for the Board of Peace and every government funding Gaza’s recovery: transfer real decision-making power to Palestinians, dismantle the blockade and restrictions that have strangled every previous reconstruction, guarantee accountability for Israel’s genocide, and commit to a political horizon that ends the occupation and delivers the Palestinian self-determination owed for decades.
/ ENDS
Kate Brayden, Media Officer – Oxfam Ireland kate.brayden@oxfam.org +353 (0)87 749 7447 Clare Cronin, Head of Communications – Oxfam Ireland clare.cronin@oxfam.org +353 (0)87 195 2551
Methodology of the "seven times" figure: Oxfam compared recovery-needs assessments across Gaza's major wars since 2008 (smaller escalations excluded), adjusted to constant 2025 US dollars using US CPI-U. 2008–09 (PA National Early Recovery and Reconstruction Plan): $2.78bn nominal / $4.17bn real; 2014 (Detailed Needs Assessment, PA/UN/EU/WB): $3.9bn / $5.30bn; 2021 (Gaza RDNA, WB/UN/EU): $485m / $576m. Combined: c. $10.1bn real. The final Gaza RDNA (EU/UN/World Bank, 20 April 2026) puts 2023 needs at $71.4bn — 7.1 times the combined total (6.8 times on physical damage). The 2012 escalation is excluded as no joint assessment exists. Assessment methodologies and time horizons differ across years (the 2021 assessment covered 24 months; the 2026 RDNA a decade); figures are indicative of order of magnitude. Source: World Bank, UN and EU assessments; US Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U. Full source register available on request.
The final EU/UN/World Bank RDNA report estimates $57.9bn in damage and losses, $71.4bn in recovery needs over a decade, including $26.3bn in the first 18 months. Over half of the physical damage was homes (accounting for $18bn).
Figures on the number of Palestinians killed or injured are based on UN OCHA.
Pledges are not disbursements: of the $5.4bn pledged at the 2014 Cairo conference, roughly half of the Gaza portion was ever delivered (World Bank tracking). Of the $17bn pledged via the Board of Peace (February 2026), only a small fraction had been disbursed as of May 2026.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded on 16 September 2025 that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. The International Court of Justice ordered provisional measures in the case brought by South Africa beginning January 2024.
The 58,600 women-headed households, 92% female unemployment and 83% assistive devices figures based on the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2025. Source: UN and PCBS.
The unpaid care findings draw on Oxfam’s Rapid Care Analysis for Gaza published in January 2026 (data collected 15 November – 1 December 2025), based on 14 focus groups with 156 women and girls across Gaza, the Middle Area and Khan Younis, plus 13 key informant interviews.)
The report draws on focus group consultations with over 70 Palestinian experts, academics and private sector and civil society representatives, conducted in Gaza by the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS) and the Palestine Trade Centre (PalTrade), alongside 13 expert interviews informing its gender, disability and inclusion analysis.
"The rebuilding of Gaza must only be led by Palestinians, but the construction of homes, hospitals and universities is not enough. It is imperative that accountability for this genocide goes hand in hand with every brick laid. We must emphasise that helping the people of Gaza to restore what was painfully lost will never bring back their loved ones. This landmark report clearly states that governments which armed, funded or shielded Israel’s destruction of Gaza share responsibility for its repair – it is not charity. The only justice for Palestinians will be an end to Israel’s illegal occupation and blockade. Hope must be restored from rubble. The Irish government can lead this process internationally – especially at EU level.”
