UN envoy arrives in Gaza to check construction plan

The United Nations special envoy for peace in the Middle East Nikolay Mladenov arrived Tuesday in the Gaza Strip for a two-day visit to check the ongoing construction plan.

Mladenov crossed into the coastal enclave through Erez Crossing Point on the border between northern Gaza Strip and Israel.

As soon as the senior official arrived in Gaza, he went with other UN officials to al-Shuja'eya neighborhood in eastern Gaza city to check the process of construction that goes on in the neighborhood.

Mladenov will hold meetings with senior Palestinian officials, who are responsible for running the plan. He will hold a news briefing on Wednesday in Gaza city, according to a UN source.

It is Mladenov's second visit to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip since last December.

His visit to the Gaza Strip coincided with the Palestinian consensus government declaration that the toll of foreign donations the government received for the construction plan in Gaza had reached 1.2 billion U.S. dollars until last August.

In Oct. 2014, Arab and international donors convened in Cairo for two days and pledges 5.7 billion dollars donations for construction of the Gaza Strip shortly after a 50-day Israeli military offensive waged on the enclave in the summer of 2014 ended.

The Israeli air and ground offensive caused large destruction in housing and infrastructure, where official figures showed that 18,000 houses were completely destroyed and more than 30,000 houses were partially damaged. Endit