Rebuilding Gaza costs over $7.5 bn: Experts

Fri Sep 5, 2014 12:8AM GMT

Palestinian experts say it costs more than $7.5 billion to rebuild the besieged Gaza Strip that was ravaged during 50 days of the recent Israeli onslaught.

The Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction said on Thursday that the process would take "five years if Israel removed its blockade on Gaza entirely."
The experts estimated the direct losses caused by the Israeli onslaught at $4.4 billion. They also believed that a total sum of $3.02 is needed for the development of the blockaded enclave.
Israel started pounding the coastal sliver in early July, inflicting heavy losses on the Palestinian land. Almost 2,140 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including women, children and the elderly, were killed in the Israeli onslaught. Around 11,000 others were injured.
Tel Aviv says 69 Israelis were killed in the conflict, but the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says the number is much higher.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement has said it fired over 3,000 rockets on dozens of Israeli cities during the Israeli war.
The latest Israeli war ended on August 26 by an Egyptian-brokered truce, which took effect after Cairo negotiations. The deal stipulates the ease of Israel’s seven-year-old blockade as well as the provision of a guarantee that Palestinian demands will be met.

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