Portfolio — 22 July 2026

The Minister for International Development, Dr Anne Aly, jointly with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Wong, announced $25 million in Australian funding for Gaza reconstruction — the single most significant International Development announcement in this activity window [TA-260721-dfat-c2bebab44278]. The package splits across two multilateral vehicles: $15 million to the UN Horizon Fund to rehabilitate physical and social infrastructure including water, sanitation, health services, education, housing, debris clearance, and explosive-ordnance risk reduction; and $10 million to the World Bank's Palestinian Fund for Reconstruction and Development, specifically targeted at strengthening the Palestinian Authority's public financial management capacity [TA-260721-dfat-c2bebab44278].

The choice of instruments is deliberate — one delivers immediate physical recovery, the other builds the governance architecture the Palestinian Authority needs to absorb and deploy reconstruction resources effectively over the longer term [TA-260721-dfat-c2bebab44278]. The announcement places Australia within a broader coalition: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom have together pledged more than $80 million to the Horizon Fund, and the media release frames Australia's contribution explicitly within that coordinated international effort [TA-260721-dfat-c2bebab44278].

The joint attribution to Dr Aly and Senator Wong is notable — Gaza reconstruction sits at the intersection of humanitarian programming and foreign policy, and the co-announcement signals that the government is treating the two portfolios as a unified response rather than parallel tracks.