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Gaza housing reconstruction to cost over $15B: Palestine Investment Fund

The chairman of the Palestine Investment Fund warns that if the war in Gaza continues, more lives are at risk from hunger or famine than from direct warfare.

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The Israeli assault has forced the majority of Gaza's 2.3 million residents to flee their homes, often multiple times, leading to a humanitarian crisis marked by shortages in food, fuel, and medical supplies. / Photo: AA

At least $15 billion would be needed to rebuild housing in Gaza, Palestine Investment Fund chairman Mohammed Mustafa said at the World Economic Forum, after much of the besieged enclave was flattened by Israel's war on Gaza.

The Palestinian leadership would, in the short-term, continue to focus on humanitarian aid including food and water but eventually, the focus would shift to reconstruction, Mustafa said on Wednesday.

The war has driven most of Gaza's 2.3 million people from their homes, some of them several times, and caused a humanitarian crisis, with food, fuel and medical supplies running low.

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"If the war in Gaza continues, more people are likely to die of hunger or famine than war," Mustafa said.

The first steps should be to bring food, medicine, water and electricity back to the besieged enclave, he added.

Israel's assault in Gaza since the October 7 has turned much of the Palestinian territory into a wasteland, killed more than 24,000 people and wounded nearly 61,000, local health officials in Gaza say.