World Bank estimates $11B needed to rebuild Lebanon after Israel-Hezbollah war
BEIRUT (AP) — The cost of reconstruction and recovery for Lebanon following the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war is estimated at $11 billion, the World Bank said in a report on Friday.
The report by the World Bank’s Lebanon Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment covered damage and losses in 10 sectors nationwide between Oct. 8, 2023, and Dec. 20, 2024. It estimates that of the $11 billion in reconstruction and recovery needs, $3 billion to $5 billion will need to be publicly financed, including for infrastructure sectors. Private financing is required for about $6 billion to $8 billion of the costs, mostly in the housing, commerce, industry and tourism sectors.
Hezbollah began firing rockets across the border on Oct. 8, 2023, one day after a deadly Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. Israel responded with shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon, and the two sides became locked in an escalating conflict that became a full-blown war in late September. A U.S.-brokered ceasefire went into effect in late November.
The Lebanese army said Friday that the Israeli military escorted Israeli civilians into Lebanese territory to visit a Jewish shrine near the village of Houla without permission from Lebanese authorities and in violation of the ceasefire agreement.
The army statement said the incident “represents a blatant violation of Lebanese national sovereignty” and of the ceasefire agreement under which Israel was supposed to withdraw its forces from all Lebanese territory last month. The Israeli military withdrew from border villages, but stayed in five strategic overlook locations inside Lebanon. Lebanese leaders have denounced the continued presence of the Israeli troops as an occupation and a violation of the deal.
The Israeli military did not immediately response to a request for comment.
Israel’s army radio published video Friday showing gaggles of ultra-Orthodox Jews flocking to the tomb where Rabbi Ashi, a Babylonian Jewish rabbi, is believed to be buried. It reported that the military escorted hundreds of worshippers to the site for morning prayers.
The U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said in a statement that peacekeepers’ view of the tomb was obscured by a screen erected by the Israeli military, but that “it appears that Israeli civilians crossed the Blue Line around the tomb” and later left.
“Any unauthorized crossing of the Blue Line is a violation of resolution 1701,” the statement said, referring to the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended a monthlong war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006. “UNIFIL urges all actors to avoid any action that could upset the current delicate stability.”
The World Bank report said the economic cost of the conflict on Lebanon totals $14 billion, with damage to physical structures amounting to $6.8 billion and economic losses from reduced productivity, foregone revenues and operating costs reaching $7.2 billion.
Housing has been the hardest-hit sector with damages estimated at $4.6 billion.
The report found that the conflict resulted in Lebanon’s real gross domestic product contracting by 7.1% in 2024, a significant setback compared to a projected 0.9% growth had the war not happened.
By the end of 2024, Lebanon’s cumulative GDP decline since 2019 approached 40%.
Over 4,000 people in Lebanon were killed in the war, which displaced hundreds of thousands and caused widespread destruction in the nation.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Friday evening that Israel launched a “large-scale air aggression” targeting sites in southern Lebanon with about 20 airstrikes. The Israeli military said it struck sites “in which weapons and rocket launchers belonging to Hezbollah were identified.”
