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

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 Organisation 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.”