Almost the whole of Gaza will have to be rebuilt

When (if) the war in Gaza comes to an end, the reconstruction of this thin strip of densely-packed urban land will be an astronomical task. The United Nations estimates it could cost up to $40 billion. But that figure presumably doesn't take into account the additional cost of rebuilding Rafah if Israel goes ahead with launching a full-scale invasion of the town in southern Gaza. It's claimed that 75 per cent of all residential buildings in Gaza are either destroyed or damaged. Nothing like this has happened in recent history. I remember being shocked beyond words when I walked through the streets of eastern Mostar in Bosnia during the civil war in the 1990s. Not a single building had escaped the torrent of artillery shells that had been fired into the Muslim half of the town by the Bosnian Croats up in the hills overlooking Mostar. It was total destruction. Similarly, Gaza is now a landscape of rubble and empty shells of crumbling apartment blocks. It will take years to rebuild the towns and cities. But when can the reconstruction begin? The latest ceasefire plan is still in doubt and even if Hamas agrees to sign it, it would only stop the war for 40 days. I suspect Gaza reconstruction is a long way off in the future.