Top finance officials from around the world this week underscored their willingness to help rebuild the enclave of Gaza as the World Bank and United Nations worked to finalize a new cost estimate of $70 billion.

Members of the ministerial-level Development Committee that advises the World Bank and International Monetary Fund discussed the challenges involved during a meeting on Thursday, World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said.

“We’re all very, very appreciative that there’s a ceasefire and that the killing has stopped, that hostages have been brought home, that Palestinians can get food,” Okonjo-Iweala said. “We hope that it will just lead to the next phase and that that will happen peacefully.”

A US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has halted two years of devastating war started by the terror group, but UN officials say aid convoys are struggling to reach allegedly........

© The Times of Israel