Israel reduces material shipments to Gaza, harmful to reconstruction: Palestinian official

Palestinian officials said on Thursday that Israel has recently reduced construction materials heading for the Gaza Strip to rebuild houses destroyed in Israel's offensive last year, and the move would harm the reconstruction.

Thousands of Gazans' homes were flattened in the 50-day military offensive, and the Israel's decision to scale down the shipments would make them wait for a longer period of time to live in new homes.

Tareq Lubbad, an official with the Gaza-based ministry of economy, urged that the shipping should go in accordance to the plan agreed upon with the UN.

He also noted that Israel only agreed to give construction materials to 1,500 applicants out of 30,000, who need to rebuild their houses.

One month after the Israeli offensive ended, the UN mediated upon an agreement between the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Israel to supervise the process of material shipment. However, the Palestinians are complaining that the process is too slow.

Palestinian officials said that the weak international donations for the rebuilding process was the major reason for the delayed progress.

Sa'eed Ammar, deputy minister of housing in Gaza, told Xinhua that the Palestinians have received just 30 percent of the pledged donations made by the donors at the end of the war.

Noting that Qatar has help build 1,000 homes so far, he said a total of 10,600 houses were completely destroyed during the mini war.

In October last year, international and Arab donors have pledged 5.4 billion U.S. dollars for Gaza's reconstruction. Endit