SHELLY CULBERTSON, KOBI RUTHENBERG, ROBERT LANE, NITAY LEHRER, MARY E. VAIANA,
C.ROSSANTHONY
From Camps to
Communities
Post-Conflict Shelter in Gaza
T
he war in Gaza has displaced 90 percent of the population, damaged most of Gaza’s build-
ings and critical infrastructure, destroyed existing communities, and left extensive rubble
and explosive hazards. Even after the war is concluded, the scope and magnitude of destruc-
tion mean that large portions of Gaza’s displaced population will not be able to return to
their homes in the near term; most will likely need to live in an interim setting for an extended
period during reconstruction. For some, this may mean a decade or more. Providing the required
shelter will require a variety of improvised, temporary, and long-term solutions to housing and
community rebuilding.
Unfortunately, warfare and conflict around the world provide ample examples of how tempo-
rary shelter approaches, such as tent camps, provide a poor quality of life—squalid conditions; poor
health and education outcomes; idleness; lack of livelihoods and, therefore, low self-reliance; lack of
public safety; and environments ripe for the incubation of radicalization (Sude, Stebbins, and Wei-
lant, 2015). In many post-conflict settings, shelter meant to be temporary (such as camps) remained
permanently, which concentrated populations in inappropriate places, isolated from their communi-
ties and from essential infrastructure. Better solutions are needed for Gaza’s displaced civilians.
In this report, we integrate lessons learned from other post-conflict and post-disaster recoveries
around the world, analysis of the destruction and landscape in Gaza, and urban planning methods
to propose new approaches for providing interim shelter and rebuilding communities. Recognizing
that reconstruction will be a long-term, multidecade process, we propose a multifaceted approach to
meet immediate shelter needs in ways that lay the foundation for good urban planning in the future,
restore some sense of community, enable people to live in decent conditions while reconstruction is
ongoing, and achieve effective reconstruction so that Gazans can thrive and go home.
We begin by describing the levels of destruction and displacement that drive the need for
interim and long-term housing solutions in Gaza. We highlight lessons learned about conditions
to avoid from other post-conflict and post-disaster rebuilding situations. Next, we propose prin-
ciples for providing interim housing in neighborhoods and camps in Gaza and offer options for
shelter. We then offer a step-by-step approach to implementing two of these options, drawing on an
approach called incremental urbanism. Finally, we lay out an approach to quantifying how many
people could be accommodated in these options and to determining where they could be accommo-
dated. We provide maps to illustrate the concepts. This research was completed in 2024.
Research Report
