Only 46% of Pledges to Rebuild Gaza Received

Gaza, 29 Rabi’ul Awwal 1438/29 December 2016 (MINA) – The Palestinian Authority (PA) received only 46 per cent of the money that had been pledged to rebuild the Gaza Strip after the Israeli war on the coastal enclave in 2014, official documents revealed yesterday.

In the wake of the Israeli war, Cairo hosted a conference for donor countries who pledged $5.082 billion for the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including $3.507 billion to rebuild Gaza, Middle East Monitor (MEMO) reported.

“Rebuilding Gaza is going very slowly,” the document, which was prepared by a PA committee together with the World Bank, showed.

According to the report, the reason of the slowness is Israel’s delay in approving the quantities and kinds of construction materials necessary for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, in addition to problems related to the list of banned materials which Israel says have dual uses for arms development.

The report showed that the PA processed 160,000 applications for rebuilding or repairing homes applied for by residents affected by Israeli military actions. Meanwhile, the number of partially and fully destroyed homes stands at 171,000.

In addition, the report showed that up until earlier this week, only 19 per cent of the 11,000 fully destroyed homes were built, and 54 per cent of the 160,000 partially destroyed homes were repaired.

Meanwhile, and up until last July, the number of displaced Gazan families was around 11,850 families, or 65,000 people. They lived or are still living in caravans and other temporary homes.

Israel waged a 51-day destructive war on Gaza in 2014 that killed 2,260 people and wounded 11,000 others. In addition to destroyed homes, hundreds of other facilities, including hospitals, schools, mosques and cemeteries were partially or completely destroyed.(T/R04/RS05)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)