Gaza reconstruction set to cost $90B: Egypt’s president

By Ibrahim Al-Khazen

CAIRO (AA) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Saturday that the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, adjacent to the border with his country, will require $90 billion.

In a speech at the Cairo Convention Center, Sisi said he "requested an estimate (from Egyptian state institutions) for the cost of rebuilding the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli bombing it witnessed," stressing that it "needs 90 billion dollars,” according to the Cairo News Channel.

He pointed out that "what happened in Gaza is a challenge to Egypt and the entire region."

“The Rafah crossing is open 24/7, and we are keen to bring aid into the Gaza Strip,” he added.

He also noted that Egypt “airdrops aid into the Gaza Strip because of the difficulties facing the process of bringing it in by land."

Egypt and the United Arab Emirates carried out a fifth joint airdrop humanitarian aid mission Friday for Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip, according to the Emirati news agency WAM.

For more than a week, Arab countries, namely Egypt, the Emirates, Jordan, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain have continued to carry out joint operations to drop food aid in Gaza, in addition to similar operations by the US.

Israel has launched a retaliatory offensive on Gaza since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7. The offensive has killed more than 30,900 victims and injured over 72,500 amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Palestinian enclave, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

About 85% of Gazans have been displaced by the Israeli onslaught amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in an interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi