Israel and Palestine continue to move forward following 50 days of fighting between the two, as the sides reached a deal to begin the reconstruction process in the battered Gaza Strip enclave.

The United Nations brokered the deal, said Robert Serry of the U.N.'s Middle East branch, according to a report from Reuters. The U.N. will monitor the use of materials in the reconstruction.

Serry said that the U.N. brokered the deal "to enable work at the scale required in the strip, involving the private sector in Gaza and giving a lead role to the Palestinian Authority in the reconstruction effort, while providing security assurances through U.N. monitoring that these materials will not be diverted from their entirely civilian purpose."

The most recent conflict between Israel and Palestine -- and the latest in a series of on-and-off fighting over the last many years -- came to an end last month, but left Gaza battered and killed more than 2,100 Palestinians.

The Palestinian Authority released a study that said the reconstruction work would cost $7.8 billion, which is two and a half times Gaza's gross domestic product. That work would include $2.5 billion for the reconstruction of homes and $250 million for energy.

The reconstruction deal comes as Gaza attempts to return to life as usual. On Sunday, schools reopened in Gaza, according to a report from The Guardian. The opening had been delayed for two weeks because of the severe damage to some schools and because the U.N. was using other schools as temporary shelters.

Ziad Thabet, a Gaza education ministry official, said that some 230,000 students were returning to public schools, 200,000 students were going back to U.N-run schools and tens of thousands of students were returning to private schools.

Thabet said 26 schools in Gaza were destroyed during the 50-day war, and another 232 were damaged.