Debris of war How will Gaza reconstruct its annihilated infrastructure?

After Donald Trump called for what has been described as an "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians to rebuild Gaza as a US "riviera" - an idea as unworkable as it is unhinged - the issues of how, if and when Gaza will be reconstructed are back at the fore.

- Peter Beaumont

The reality is that, for all the promises to rehabilitate the coastal strip after previous conflicts, reconstruction has at best been very partial and always subordinated to Israel's demands. One of the most striking cases in point was the aftermath of the Gaza war in 2014, when a complex system was put in place to monitor the distribution of materials for rebuilding in the strip.

After Israel's objection that Hamas would redirect concrete, steel and other resources to tunnel building, a UN oversight process known as the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism was put in place.

Vetted projects and contractors would present themselves at monitored warehouses. Papers and IDS checked, they could take away what they had been allocated.

Hugely overcomplicated, underresourced and ultimately set up for failure, the GRM never functioned properly. Instead, it allowed a hidden market to quickly emerge.

All of which explains some of the enormous complexities facing the rebuilding of Gaza. It is not simply a physical problem, it is a political problem as well.