Reconstruction hampered in Gaza due to shipment blockade

Over the past seven months, Israel has only allowed the shipment of 10 per cent of the needed raw material for the process of reconstruction in the Gaza Strip, an official report said Sunday.

The Palestinian Popular Committee to Resist the Israeli Blockade said in a press release emailed to reporters that Israel has only allowed 10 percent of the pledged amounts of raw materials needed for reconstruction in the Gaza Strip.

It said that this is what had been only allowed since the end of last summer's large-scale Israeli military air and ground operation waged on the Gaza Strip and lasted for 50 days until August 26.

"About 2,252 trucks loaded with cements were allowed in the Gaza Strip; that's to say 90,000 tons of cements altogether, which means that Israel only allowed 473 tons of cements everyday during the last 200 days," it said.

Construction experts had earlier said that the Gaza Strip needs at least 3,000 tons of cements everyday in order to be able to rebuild what had been destroyed during the last Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.

The committee noted that other kinds of raw materials needed for constructions such as iron and gravel "were barely enough to rebuild 500 apartments only, where Israel destroyed 30,000 apartments in the war.

"A real reconstruction process to rebuild what Israel had destroyed during its war on the Gaza Strip hasn't started yet; however, no one single building was completely built, all what was done is just renovations of partial damages," it said.

At the end of the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, Arab and international donors convened in Cairo on October 12 for two days and pledged 5.4 billion U.S. dollars for the reconstruction of destructions in the enclave. Endit