Israel-Hamas War: What it Will Take to Rebuild Gaza

Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire following 15 months of intense conflict in Gaza.

The violence, which began on October 7, 2023 and ended on January 15, 2025, has caused widespread destruction across the Gaza Strip, where approximately 2.3 million Palestinians reside.

This recent escalation is part of a larger conflict marked by over 75 years of ongoing violence and tension in the region.

A United Nations report released in September 2024 estimated that by the end of January 2024, the conflict had inflicted $18.5 billion worth of damage on Gaza’s infrastructure. The report also projected that, even with a ceasefire in place, restoring Gaza’s GDP to its 2022 level would take approximately 350 years.

The report also stated that 1.9 million people were displaced in Gaza as of October 2024, out of a population of 2.2 million people.

As talks on rebuilding Gaza begin, Newsweek sought insights from experts to determine the timeline for rebuilding Gaza, factoring in the scale of destruction and the logistical, economic, and political obstacles.

Dr. Asher Kaufman: Rebuilding Gaza Will Take Years and Cost Billions

Under the current political conditions, it will be very challenging to rebuild the Gaza Strip.

There have been conversations and plans to rehabilitate the Strip since Hamas’s violent takeover in 2007 and they have mostly failed given political, economic, and logistical barriers.

Now in 2025, after this war—should it end—the challenges are close to insurmountable given the political reality which is as follows: Hamas will make its utmost effort to control anything that is rebuilt in Gaza and any flow of money or humanitarian assistance to the strip.

Israel and Western countries will do their best to derail the possibility of Hamas staying in charge of Gaza. Palestinians themselves are sharply divided over this, including the tension between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

If these political obstacles are overcome the question will still be who will pay for it and what might they ask in return. Gulf states, and in particular Qatar and the UAE, are clearly candidates for this.

Qatar has a long history of positive relationship with Hamas including funding its activities—which ended up allowing the organization to build its military capacities. It remains to be seen how Qatar will maintain its relationship with Hamas in a post-war reality.

Turkey might also be keen to be involved in the reconstruction of Gaza although it is more limited in its financial capacities to do so. And it also remains to be seen if and how the U.S. will play a role in this process.

In this regard, there are many unknowns given the new Trump administration. Whatever the case, we are talking about a process that could take many years and cost billions of dollars in a shaky political reality in which the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians continues to fester and might escalate further.

Asher Kaufman, Professor of History and Peace Studies, Director, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Keough School of Global Affairs.

Professor Best Dawn: Clearing the Rubble in Gaza Alone Will Take Years

How long it takes to rebuild Gaza depends on a number of factors. Most important is whether the ceasefire will hold and a ‘permanent peace’ process is initiated.

Should that happen, then temporary camp cities can be set up in a matter of weeks to provide Gazans with the basics—water, electricity, sanitation, Wi-Fi, and food. And a broad international effort can get underway to clear the rubble—that alone will take years, but as rubble is cleared new infrastructure and residences can start being (re)built.

However, under the current Israeli government, this is an unlikely scenario, because Netanyahu’s far-right government is determined to completely obliterate not just the armed wing of Hamas, but the civilian elements as well. That is probably most of the population of Gaza.

You need to keep in mind that only 20 percent of the population of Gaza are Palestinians from Gaza. Nearly 80 percent of the population are Palestinian refugees from other parts of historic Palestine who were forced from their homes often at gunpoint in 1948 by the various Jewish militias who were implementing Plan Dalet—clearing Palestine of Palestinians in that part of the country that was to become the Jewish state under UN resolutions.

This population continues to insist on the right to return to their homes as is their right under international law, but not Israeli national law.

Dawn Chatty, FBA, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and Forced Migration, Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford.

Ghousson AL Lakoud: If the World Helps, Gaza Can Be Rebuilt in a Few Years

If all the world can help, Gaza can be built within four years to max five years.

Ghousson AL Lakoud, MEng, CEng, MIStructE, Technical Manager-UAE.

Arif Lalani: Before Talks of Reconstruction, Immediate Humanitarian Assistance is Needed

Reconstruction would take at least 10 years and tens of billions of dollars.

It would require the following: Functioning Palestinian governance, reliable law and order and security, private sector investment or the integration of Gaza into regional economic development schemes such as IMEC, large-scale state financial assistance, and international coordination that is sustained and authoritative.

All of this begs the question whether the hostage and prisoner exchange phase will advance to a longer-term ceasefire. Until this is clear, it will be extremely difficult to mount reconstruction.

In the coming days and weeks the absolute priority needs to be immediate and generous humanitarian assistance from the international community. Otherwise, Hamas will fill the void. Any future reconstruction depends on what happens in the coming month.

Arif Lalani, former Canadian ambassador to Jordan, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates. Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Senior Advisor at StrategyCorp.

Professor Atalia Omer: There Is a Fear That Israel Has Rendered Gaza Uninhabitable

It is crucial to understand the question of rebuilding Gaza within the broader context of Israel’s cyclical assault on the Strip and subsequent channeling of resources to rebuild.

There is now a legacy or a pattern where the world’s donor countries mobilize to rehabilitate Gaza through the activation of the language of humanitarianism, not political rights. Israel never pays the bill for its bombing and devastation.

The current devastation is on a scale different from prior ones in 2008, 2012, 2021, and so forth. Beyond the immense death toll, Israel has destroyed Gaza’s infrastructure of life. There are fears that Israel rendered the place uninhabitable.

Rebuilding cannot simply be a function of channeling funds and technical support; there is a need to address the root cause, namely the Israeli occupation. Ultimately, sustainable rebuilding will require facilitating conditions for Palestinian self-determination in Gaza and the West Bank.

The intensification of the radical right and settlers’ agendas in the Israeli context is also posing a significant challenge because they have had an ongoing interest in prolonging the assault on Gaza to facilitate Jewish re-colonization.

The ceasefire is fragile and is already shaken by the intensification of settler violence and military operations in the West Bank and Trump rescinding sanctions on violent settlers, sending a message greenlighting the annexionist forces within the Israeli political landscape.

The fact that Israel will continue to operate with impunity—Netanyahu and Galant have warrants for their arrest issued by the ICC, and the ICJ deemed its actions in Gaza as plausibly genocidal—mounts a massive political hurdle for moving forward with rebuilding in the aftermath of utter destruction for the Gazans.

Atalia Omer Professor of Religion, Conflict, and Peace Studies, The University of Notre Dame.