Rami Salama was scheduled to marry on the first day of this year after he almost completed furnishing his small apartment at his family house.

But the building, which embodied his apartment, were wiped out by Israeli bulldozers during the major offensive against the Gaza Strip which started in December and ended on Jan. 18.

Everyday since then, Rami has been looking for an apartment to rent, but still he didn't find a suitable house with a suitable price.

"My marriage is subjected to finding a house for me and for my family," said Rami, the 26-year old man whose house was located near Jabaliya town in northern Gaza Strip.

Rami's father Mohammed built and furnished a one-story house in 2005. A year later, he laid the structure of another apartment for his son on the top of his house.

When Mohammed started painting and installing the interior components of the house, Israel had already sealed off the Gaza Strip after Islamic Hamas movement seized control there, allowing only little more than basic food, medicine and humanitarian needs.

"I managed to buy the furniture and the electrical appliances during the siege; everything was very expensive and with poor quality but I was able to get the necessary things," Rami explains.

During the offensive, in which more than 1,300 Palestinians were killed, Israel destroyed more than 14,000 buildings, most of which were civilian properties.

More than three months have passed since the end of the war but no notable improvements occurred on the cargo transportation into Gaza through the Israeli-controlled commercial crossing points.

Hamas paid 4,000 euros for the residents of most of the houses that were completely destroyed, saying this money was paid "as a transitional solution to help the families renting houses until the crossing opens and the reconstruction starts."

According to a broker, the demand for renting houses, especially apartments, has largely increased after the end of war and there was almost no supply or offers for renting.

Before the Israeli blockade, the rental fee of an apartment was about 150 U.S. dollars per month. Now, with the lack of apartments, the price went up to 300 dollars per month.

In case someone wants to buy an apartment in Gaza, before the blockade, an apartment cost 40,000 dollars. Now it would coast 60,000.

"The apartments are like any other commodity; it is subject to demand and supply," said Muin Rajab, an economy lecturer at al-Azhar University.

"The Israeli closure had led to the decrease in the apartments' supply and this encouraged the owners of the available apartments to increase the rentals," he said.

"The pressing need by the one who wants to marry or the family which lost its house made the house seekers pay more for the owners due to the absence of other alternatives," he added.

Yousef al-Manssi, public works minister in the Hamas administration of Gaza, said the territory needs at least 20,000 residential units to meet the demand of the people. "Since more than 20 months ago, no new residential units have been built due to the Israeli closure," he said.

Israel imposed the closure on Gaza after Hamas routed security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas and seized the security installations there in 2007.

Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement are now seeking reconciliation in dialogue to come up with a unity government that would help lifting the siege to allow the reconstruction of Gaza.

In March, international donors pledged 4.5 billion dollars in aid to the Palestinians, but nothing has been done on the reconstruction.

(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2009)