Feature: Frustrated Gaza families await reconstruction of destroyed homes

It was a long and hot day for Fuad Zaza, a Palestinian old man from el-Shuja'ia neighborhood in eastern Gaza city, as he sat on a piece of concrete near the debris of his home that was destroyed during a large-scale military operation Israel waged on Gaza last summer.

The 50-day air, sea and ground operation ended on August 26, 2014, and since then, Zaza has been going to his destroyed home every day, very early in the morning, and leaving after sunset to an apartment he rented for his family, hoping to see a reconstruction process pledged by world's donors.

"It has been already nine month since the end of the war and a truce had been reached, but nothing is moving on, while everything looks like the war just ended yesterday," the 60-year-old Zaza, who seemed frustrated and tired, told Xinhua. "Our patience to get back to our homes is running out."

Right after their house was bombed by random Israeli tank shells, Zaza and his family refused to go a school that shelters hundreds of displaced families who lost their homes during the war, so he rented a small apartment for sleeping at night.

"We go to the rented house for sleeping, and we come back the following day in the morning and stay near the debris of our destroyed home," said Zaza, adding that "we heard in the news, and we hear every day that the process of reconstruction is pending and will start soon, but nothing yet happened."

Zaza also said that since the end of the war, every day passes as if it is a whole year, adding that "the most difficult part of this tragedy is that we used to live safe and sound in our home before it was destroyed and now it is so difficult to keep living in a rented house."

Not only Zaza and his family have been waiting nine months for rebuilding their destroyed home. But several others say that all what they hear "are only promises."

They said that this kind of insecure life is unbearable, blaming both Palestinian factions and the international community for their endless daily suffering.

"So far we haven't been compensated yet in order to be able to rebuild our homes and we really don't know what is going to happen," said Zaza, adding that "our humanitarian crisis should be linked to the political disputes either between Israel and the Palestinians or between the Palestinians themselves."

On July 8, 2014, Israel launched a military operation on the Gaza Strip. The offensive ended after Egypt mediated a truce between Israel and Hamas-led armed groups. The war left more than 2,140 people dead and over 10,000 wounded. Large damage was also caused to houses, infrastructure, industry and agriculture.

The displaced persons are obliged to temporarily rent narrower homes and apartments all over the densely populated enclave with a population of 1.8 million people. Some families live on the debris of their homes.

Angry Zuhair Razayna, in his mid 50s, has remained with his family at a school run by the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA). He said his house had completely turned into rubble.

"We are living a new Nakba (Catastrophe)," said Razayna, referring to the largest Nakba in the modern history when the state of Israel was created in 1948 and near one million Palestinians became refugees at that time.

He added that the situation is getting more and more difficult "because first of all, the world neglects the displaced families, and second, the ongoing Israeli siege remains," adding that "what we heard of promises and pledges are all lies and they are just playing with our feelings and emotions."

On Oct. 12, Arab and international donors, who convened in Cairo for two days, pledged 5.4 billion U.S. dollars for launching the process of reconstruction in the Gaza Strip. However, disputes on the mechanism of shipping raw materials to the enclave had blocked the process.

Furthermore, the disputes between Islamic Hamas movement and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party had also made the reconstruction process impossible.

Adnan Abu Hasna, the Gaza media advisor of UNRWA, told Xinhua that the international agency had requested from Cairo donors' conference 724 million U.S. dollars, adding that "since October until now, UNRWA had only received 216 million dollars."

"UNRWA understands the status of frustration and outrage among the population who live a tragic life, mainly the homeless people," said Abu Hasna, adding that "there are growing deeper concerns that if the situation remains like that, frustration will mount and the situation might blow up."

Palestinian officials said that although Israel had repeatedly announced that it eased the blockade imposed on Gaza since 2007, but it is still imposing tightened restrictions on the crossing points of the Gaza Strip, mainly the shipment of reconstruction materials. Endit