Billions of dollars will be needed to rebuild Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war, according to United Nations estimates.

A ceasefire between the two warring sides was put in place yesterday Sunday to suspend the war, which has now been going on for 15 months, has flattened the Gaza Strip and inflamed the Middle East.

Below is an assessment of the destruction in Gaza from the war sparked after the surprise attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen on October 7, 2023, and the Israeli retaliation that followed.

How many losses are there?

The Hamas attack on Israel has claimed the lives of 1,200 people, according to Israeli estimates. Israeli retaliation has caused the deaths of more than 46,000 people, according to Hamas health ministry figures.

How long will it take to remove the debris?

A United Nations estimate released this month showed that it would likely take 21 years to remove more than 50 million tons of debris caused by Israeli bombing, at a cost of more than $1.2 billion.

The debris is believed to be contaminated with asbestos and some refugee camps affected during the war are known to have been constructed of asbestos.

Human remains are also likely to be found in the debris. The Palestinian Health Ministry estimates that 10,000 bodies are missing having been swept away by debris. A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) official said yesterday that development in Gaza had been set back by 69 years because of the war.

How many buildings have been destroyed

Rebuilding the destroyed homes in Gaza will take at least until 2040, but could take several decades, according to a United Nations report released last year.

Two-thirds of the pre-war infrastructure in Gaza – more than 170,000 buildings – has been destroyed or razed, according to figures released in December by the UN satellite center UNOSAT.

This represents about 69 percent of the total number of infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

This number includes a total of 245,123 settlement units, according to UNOSAT estimates. Currently, more than 1.8 million people are in urgent need of shelter in Gaza, as estimated by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

What is the damage to infrastructure?

The estimated infrastructure destruction amounted to $18.5 billion by the end of January 2024 and involved residential buildings, commercial, industrial and basic service structures — such as education, health and energy — according to a United Nations World Bank report.

An update by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs this month showed that less than a quarter of pre-war water supplies are available, and at least 68 percent of the road network has been destroyed.

How will Gazans be fed?

More than half of the agricultural land in Gaza, critical to feeding the starving population in the conflict-ravaged land, has been degraded by the war, satellite images analyzed by the United Nations show.

The data reveals increased destruction of orchards, fields, and vegetable gardens in the Palestinian enclave where famine is widespread after 15 months of Israeli bombardment.

The UN’s International Food and Agriculture Organization said last year that 15,000 cattle, or more than 95 percent of the total number, have been slaughtered or died since the war began and so have nearly half of the sheep.

What is true of schools, universities and places of worship

Figures from the Palestinian side show that the conflict has led to the destruction of more than 200 government facilities, 136 schools and universities, 823 mosques and other places of worship.

Many hospitals have been destroyed by the war and only 17 of 36 facilities were partially operational by January, according to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Amnesty International has underlined the scale of the destruction along Gaza’s eastern border.

By May 2024 more than 90% of the buildings in the area, including more than 3,500 structures, were either severely damaged or destroyed.