Oxfam accuses Israel of genocide, pushes for $71.4b. Gaza reconstruction plan

A new report by Oxfam, co-authored with the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS) and the Palestine Trade Centre (PalTrade), estimates that $71.4 billion is needed to rebuild Gaza, seven times the cost of all previous reconstructions. The report, titled "Building Gaza Anew," frames Gaza's recovery as a "matter of rights and reparations, not charity," and proposes a five-year framework centered on "Palestinian ownership at every stage." It rejects models that treat Gaza as a separate entity and emphasizes that "What was destroyed in Gaza was not merely steel and concrete. Israel eradicated an entire social and economic world."

"Gaza has never been allowed to finish rebuilding," Amitabh Behar, Oxfam's international executive director, said.

The report accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, along with domicide, sociocide, reprocide, scholasticide, and spatiocide, stating these concepts provide a framework to understand the destruction. It asserts that the war cannot be separated from Israel's "prolonged occupation and systematic policy of ethnic cleansing." The report also calls for Israel to pay reparations and cease fiscal counter-terrorism safeguards on Palestinian Authority accounts, while largely omitting discussion of terror threats or deradicalization efforts.