Rebuilding Gaza will cost $7.8bn (€6.03bn), the Palestinian Authority said, in the most comprehensive assessment yet of damage from a seven-week war with Israel during which whole neighbourhoods and vital infrastructure were flattened.

Israel’s housing minister yesterday gave final approval for building nearly 1,200 settlement apartments on lands the Palestinians want for their state, three days before US-sponsored talks on the borders of such a state are to begin in Jerusalem.