A World Bank preliminary assessment has estimated that the twin earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela on 24 June caused $19.6 billion in direct physical damage — roughly 18% of the country's gross domestic product — as recovery efforts continue more than a month after the disaster. The report, based on the institution's rapid damage estimation methodology, attributes 47% of losses to residential buildings, 27% to infrastructure, and the remainder to non-residential structures. La Guaira state, the coastal region north of Caracas, and the Capital District together account for roughly half the total impact; in La Guaira alone, an estimated one in five homes was destroyed.
The World Bank figure does not include debris removal or the cost of rebuilding to improved structural standards, which the institution says could push the total to nearly $50 billion. An earlier United Nations assessment had put direct damage at $37 billion. Official figures record 5,398 dead and 16,740 injured, but independent online platforms tracking missing persons list between 17,000 and 40,000 people still unaccounted for. Venezuelan authorities have declined to publish an official missing-persons count, with a senior government official dismissing such figures as speculation. The official death toll is widely believed to be a significant undercount; analysts note the disaster could rank as the second-deadliest earthquake in Latin America since 1980, behind only the 2010 Haiti earthquake, which killed around 316,000 people. The United Nations estimates more than one million people require immediate humanitarian assistance, and around 18,000 remain without housing.
On the ground, rescue operations have effectively given way to structural assessment and debris clearance. An Israeli military team of 64 personnel — deployed despite the two countries having severed diplomatic ties in 2009 — completed what its spokesman described as the longest international mission in Israeli army history, lasting 24 days. Major Roni Kaplan, who served as the team's Spanish-language spokesperson, described La Guaira as a