(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
Aid groups have secured the equivalent of more than $6 billion in help to rebuild the Gaza Strip after it was devastated in the recent Israeli offensive against the Palestinian territory.
World leaders have also renewed calls for a long-term peace plan to ensure any reconstruction is not torn apart by fresh fighting.
Brianna Roberts reports.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
Representatives from dozens of countries have attended a conference in Cairo, where they pledged funds for the rebuilding of the Palestinian territory of Gaza.
The total was a billion dollars more than the Palestinians had asked for.
Around half of the total will go towards rebuilding homes and infrastructure damaged during 50 days of fighting between Israel and Hamas, which ended in August.
At least 100,000 Gazans lost their homes in the conflict.
Announcing the pledges, Norway's Foreign Minister Borge Brende said the money is vital for the future of the region
"The materials necessary for large-scale reconstruction must be delivered into Gaza. The wheels of the Gazan economy must be set in motion. We must find ways of tapping the potential of the private sector, both in Gaza and in the West Bank."
Donor states have also used the conference to call on both sides to commit to a lasting peace plan.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon says renewed peace talks are vital for the success of any reconstruction efforts.
"Gaza cannot be rebuilt on a weak political foundation. That is why the United Nations will continue to support the government of national consensus."
United States Secretary of State John Kerry echoed the call for a peace plan.
He says the ceasefire deal, brokered in August, should be only the first step in a bigger peace process.
"Even the most durable of ceasefires is not a substitute for real security for Israel, or a state and dignity for the Palestinians.There's no way to fully satisfy that without, in the end, building a long-term prospect for peace that builds confidence about the future."
Israel was not invited to the Cairo conference, but Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said earlier that rebuilding efforts would need his government's consent.
The reconstruction will depend largely on whether Israel will agree to allow construction materials into Gaza.
Charity groups including Oxfam are warning the money pledged could fail to help those in need unless restrictions on imports into Gaza are lifted.
But Israel has been hesitant to allow that, because it says Hamas has used cement to build tunnels into Israeli territory in the past.
The special envoy for the so-called Middle East Quartet, Tony Blair, has told the BBC rebuilding Gaza is pointless unless both sides are ready to work for long-term stability.
"You can reconstruct Gaza, but is there going to be a political framework that offers a prospect of stability for the future and progress so that you don't, at some point, go back into conflict and then the construction is, yet again, followed by destruction?"
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