Massive war-torn homeless Gazans still trapped in misery

About 65,000 Palestinians are estimated to have been homeless since Israel's large-scale military offensive on Gaza in 2014, the Gaza-based Anti-siege Popular Committee said Wednesday.

Independent lawmaker Jamal al-Khodari, chairman of the committee, told a news briefing in Gaza that the homeless Gazans are still living either in caravans, rented apartments or with their close relatives since the summer of 2014.

In the summer of 2014, Israel waged the largest ever military air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip for 50 days, leaving 2,200 Palestinians, most of them women and children, dead and 11,000 others wounded.

The offensive also caused large destruction and heavy losses in housing, infrastructure, industry, economy and agriculture in the Hamas-controlled coastal enclave.

Khodari called on Egypt and Norway; the sponsors of a two-day donors conference held in Cairo in October, 2014, to exert more pressure on Israel to allow the shipment of construction raw-materials into Gaza.

"The sponsors should also follow up with the donors who pledged 5.4 billion U.S. dollars for constructing Gaza and check their fulfillment to their promises," he said.

Only 3,000 houses have been completely rebuilt, out of 12,000 houses that were destroyed in the Israeli offensive, he added. Endit