On September 23, 2026, in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the Peace Council presented the first detailed program for the recovery of the Gaza sector. It is designed for six months after the actual launch, includes 66 projects, and is estimated at approximately $2.45 billion. But a caveat is immediately needed here: the money has not yet been fully collected, the start date of the program has not been determined, and the construction itself is tied to an issue that Israel and mediators have not yet resolved — how exactly the disarmament of Hamas should take place.
Initial reports claimed that the recovery should begin in 2027. This is not in the published document of the Peace Council. It states otherwise: programs are ready to launch “as soon as funding and access allow”, and the six-month period is counted from the moment the executors enter Gaza. Tony Blair, involved in the leadership of the Council, indeed spoke about the transition from preparation to implementation “within the next year,” but he did not name a fixed start date.
The material was prepared by the author of NANews Lev Varshavsky. The basis for the analysis was the official 6-Month Gaza Recovery Program, reports from Israeli media, and Israeli data on the future Palestinian police.
This is not a plan to restore the entire Gaza for $2.45 billion
Here, the numbers are easy to confuse. The Peace Council estimates the direct physical damage in Gaza at approximately $35.2 billion, and the total cost of recovery and reconstruction over the next decade at approximately $71.4 billion. The current $2.45 billion is only the first package, designed to launch basic services, temporary housing, infrastructure, new administration, and security system.
The six blocks of the program look like this: about $1.205 billion is allocated for infrastructure, $303 million for humanitarian and social recovery, approximately $35 million for economic launch, $17 million for digitalization, about $10 million for legal system recovery, and at least $885 million for security and new power infrastructure. The last figure explains a lot: almost every third dollar of the starting budget is related not to concrete and hospitals, but to the question of who will control Gaza after Hamas.
$400 million for temporary housing, $275 million for debris and ammunition
The largest civilian item is approximately $400 million for temporary housing. This primarily refers to insulated residential modules for people who are still in tents. Another $275 million is planned to be spent on dismantling, sorting, and recycling debris, simultaneously clearing the area of unexploded ordnance.
About $100 million is allocated for transport, $78 million for the repair of partially damaged houses. The restoration of five more hospitals is estimated at $67 million, a separate program for the repair and equipment of medical institutions at another $50 million. About $35 million is allocated for generators and fuel, $30 million for roads, and $20 million for emergency water supply and sewage restoration. The official document of the Council claims that more than 85% of the road network in the sector is damaged.
There are also smaller but quite indicative projects: desalination plants, solar panels, restoration of the fishing port, border crossings, land cadastre, warehouse center, and power grids. The UAE separately proposes to build a pilot residential area for approximately 50 thousand people currently in tents.
The media write about another scale of the housing problem. One of the projects should provide mobile housing for approximately 400 thousand residents, while more than a million people are still estimated to live in tents or other temporary structures. Turkey promised about 70 thousand mobile homes, and another 5 thousand homes provided by Egypt and Qatar remain on the Egyptian side of the border due to the lack of Israeli permission for their import.
So even a six-month program, if fully implemented, does not close the housing issue.
The money is promised. But a promise and the transfer of money are not the same
The Peace Council does not yet have all the $2.45 billion specified in the program. At the February donor meeting, about a dozen countries promised approximately $17 billion, but by September 23, about $280 million had actually been transferred. Nikolay Mladenov explains the difference by saying that the Council requests money gradually, as specific programs are ready to launch.
The official document itself has a rather practical wording: states and other partners can finance a separate project, an entire block, or provide equipment and property instead of money. In other words, we are not looking at a $2.45 billion check lying on the table, but a catalog of already calculated projects for which funding still needs to be collected and physical access obtained.
This is where NANews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency separates the presentation from what is happening on the ground: 66 budget lines already exist, but the very possibility of fulfilling them depends not so much on excavators and cement, but on the arrangement of power and security in Gaza.
Blair says: Hamas agreed. Israel sees the situation as more complex
The most politically sensitive part of the presentation came from Tony Blair.
He stated that under the cities of Gaza there remain kilometers of tunnels, weapons depots, and weapons production facilities, and that the new civilian administration will not be able to manage the sector until this system is destroyed. Then Blair said: Hamas agreed to this, and the implementation should proceed step by step.
But the wording “Hamas agreed to lay down arms” without continuation would be too simple.
On July 30, the movement agreed to the demilitarization roadmap proposed by the Peace Council. However, implementation stalled due to a dispute over the sequence of actions. The Council’s scheme involves gradual disarmament and inspection of individual areas in parallel with the phased withdrawal of the IDF. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demands a different sequence: first, complete and verifiable disarmament of Hamas, then further changes in the deployment of Israeli troops.
NANews thoroughly analyzed this conflict around the 15-point roadmap: the dispute is no longer so much about the ultimate goal — a demilitarized Gaza — but about who takes the first irreversible step.
Later Jared Kushner discussed the same scheme directly with Hamas representatives in Cairo. The American side is trying to link disarmament, the transfer of power to a technocratic administration, the advancement of international forces, and the phased change in the deployment of the IDF into one verifiable process.
$20 million even provided for voluntary surrender of weapons
In the published budget, a separate line is Decommissioning Program — about $20 million. This is a program to encourage the voluntary surrender of weapons and ammunition with their subsequent destruction or safe disposal.
Simultaneously, about $15 million is planned to be used for the physical elimination and filling of tunnels under objects necessary for the first recovery projects. This does not yet mean that the entire underground complex of Hamas can be neutralized for such an amount: the program relates to sites that will be needed directly for the launch of the first wave of construction.
In the May report of the Peace Council to the UN Security Council, it was mentioned about 350 kilometers of tunnels that will need to be neutralized, and about 70 million tons of debris, part of which contains unexploded ordnance. The same report estimated that about 85% of the buildings and infrastructure in the sector were damaged or destroyed.
This also explains the figure “70% of Gaza is destroyed” appearing in publications. Blair himself used a similar estimate during the current presentation, but such an indicator is not specified in the official two-page document of the Peace Council. Other metrics are used there — $35.2 billion in physical damage and more than 85% of the damaged road network. Therefore, turning “70%” into an official statistical estimate of the entire document would be incorrect.
International forces: first 500, then thousands
The commander of the International Stabilization Forces, American General Jasper Jeffers, presented a five-stage demilitarization scheme.
The initial group should consist of about 500 military personnel from Morocco and Kosovo. Further, it is planned to join military personnel from Albania, Kazakhstan, and other countries. A broader initial structure, which Israeli sources reported earlier, provides for about 2,500 military personnel, and a permanent facility in the Rafah area is already being designed with the possibility of accommodating up to 5,000 ISF personnel.
About $140 million is allocated for the mobilization, training, and equipping of the ISF in the six-month plan, and another approximately $275 million for permanent infrastructure in Rafah. The overall Peace & Security block exceeds $885 million.
Jeffers’ logic is movement district by district. Weapons and tunnels are neutralized, international structures verify the result, the new Palestinian administration enters the territory, and after confirmed demilitarization, the next stage of IDF withdrawal should occur. It is this last link that causes the main objections of the current Israeli government.
220 thousand applications to the new police — Israel approved about 16 thousand
The Peace Council is simultaneously trying to create a Palestinian police force that should be responsible for internal civil security instead of Hamas.
According to published Israeli data, approximately 220 thousand applications were received. Israel checked the candidates and preliminarily approved about 16 thousand people, who were deemed not connected with Hamas. The final police strength is expected to be at the level of 10–12 thousand officers. Training is planned to be conducted in Egypt.
But here again, the same political deadlock appears. The media report that Israel has not yet allowed some of the already verified candidates to leave Gaza for training in Egypt. About $120 million is allocated in the six-month program for the mobilization and initial training of the police.
So the future police already exist in the budget, there is a huge base of candidates, and an Israeli check has been conducted. But the structure itself is not yet functioning in the form in which it should replace the armed power of Hamas.
Who should manage Gaza at all
Civil administration is supposed to be transferred to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza — NCAG, a Palestinian technocratic structure operating within the Peace Council system.
The head of the committee, Ali Shaat, described the future model with the formula: “one authority, one law, one weapon”. The committee plans to audit the existing administration, personnel, finances, property, and public services, and even before the full entry of NCAG into management, five urgent directions are planned: garbage removal, winter preparation, water and sewage restoration, medical evacuations, and temporary housing.
Blair simultaneously touched on a much more distant political perspective. According to him, the issue of Palestinian statehood is not being resolved now, but the possibility of such development should remain open, provided Israel’s security is ensured. This is Blair’s position and the architects of the current international mechanism, not the agreed position of the Israeli government.
4G, digital ID, Gaza Tech Park — and even Palestinian Airlines
Some of the 66 points are more like an attempt to immediately build a new economic system rather than emergency aid.
The plan provides for the restoration of 4G, digital identification of residents, an electronic healthcare system, digital payments, cloud storage of government data, e-learning, small business grants, a regional production park, and Gaza Tech Park. It is also proposed to create a special fund to attract private investment.
There is even a point of about $1 million to preserve the license and the last plane of Palestinian Airlines to ensure pilgrimage flights to Mecca.
The idea of turning Gaza into an open tax-free economic zone is indeed being discussed by the Peace Council. It was mentioned even during the presentation of the overall model in February: it was proposed to reduce corruption and intermediary costs, transition to transparent digital payments and trade. But in the current official list of 66 six-month programs, there is no separate project “tax-free Gaza.” Therefore, this is still a concept of the future economic structure, not an approved line of the current budget.
Ukrainian perspective: $2.45 billion clearly shows the difference between damage, need, and real money
For Ukraine, there is no direct political connection here, and comparing the wars themselves would be incorrect. But the recovery mechanism provides a rather illustrative example of why the figures “cost of destruction,” “cost of recovery,” “promised aid,” and “money actually reaching projects” cannot be mixed.
According to the latest joint assessment by the Ukrainian government, the World Bank, the EU, and the UN, Ukraine’s recovery needs for a decade are estimated at almost $588 billion, while the direct physical damage by the end of 2025 was about $195 billion. Separately, almost $28 billion is required for debris clearance and the elimination of explosive items.
In Gaza, the scale is different, but the financial logic is similar: there is an assessment of damage, there is a ten-year cost of recovery, there is a first set of projects, there are donor promises — and there is a completely different amount that is actually available today.
That is why the phrase “$2.45 billion was allocated for the recovery of Gaza” would be incorrect.
Explanation for Israeli readers: who is who
Peace Council, Board of Peace — an international mechanism created within the framework of US President Donald Trump’s plan, also receiving a UN Security Council mandate for transitional management and recovery of Gaza. It does not replace the Israeli government and is not a UN subdivision.
NCAG — a Palestinian technocratic committee, which is supposed to gradually take over the civil administration of Gaza. It should work without Hamas and gain control over public services, budget, border crossings, and civil police.
ISF — International Stabilization Force. Their task is to ensure a transitional security regime, participate in demilitarization, support the new police, and be located between territories transferred to the new administration and Israeli forces.
Demilitarization in the Council’s documents is not just the transfer of rifles. It includes the weapons of armed groups, depots, production of rockets and ammunition, as well as the neutralization of tunnel infrastructure.
What happens next
There is now a fairly detailed scheme of what to build, how much it approximately costs, and who should manage Gaza. There is no other — agreed mechanism that would allow transitioning from the scheme to construction.
If Hamas begins verifiable disarmament, and Israel and the Peace Council agree on the order of further IDF actions, international forces and NCAG can move district by district. Then the first humanitarian and infrastructure programs can start without waiting for the full ten-year reconstruction.
If the dispute over the sequence remains, 66 projects may continue to exist for a long time as ready budget lines.
And this is perhaps the main result of the presentation on September 23: the problem of Gaza’s recovery is no longer in the absence of a blueprint. The blueprint has appeared — down to the number of buses, mobile homes, police officers, solar panels, and servers.
But it is built around one condition that currently exists mainly on paper: post-war Gaza must remain without an independent armed structure of Hamas, and the new authority must gain a real monopoly on weapons and governance. As long as Israel, Hamas, and the Peace Council understand the order of reaching this point differently, $2.45 billion remains the cost of a prepared program, not a started reconstruction.