Israeli blockades in Gaza have created a welfare society, the top United Nations humanitarian official in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) said on Thursday.

Many years ago, Gaza was once a "thriving, entrepreneurial" society, Maxwell Gaylard told reporters here. "Now, it's close to a welfare society."

Nearly 80 percent of the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza are forced to rely on assistance in some capacity, most of it from the United Nations Relief Work Agency for Palestine (UNRWA), said Gaylard.

"No significant economic progress will be made until the blockade is lifted," he said. "The imposition is a collective punishment of 1.5 million people."

Reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, which took a brutal beating during the Israeli offensive in January, cannot begin because the blockade prevents the import of necessary building materials.

"No cement is allowed in yet, no steel rods, no building material, nothing that you really need to build a house," said Gaylard who is also deputy special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

The United Nations has received some US$100 million in funding from member states for reconstruction projects, which are ready to begin "as soon as restrictions are lifted on the passage of the appropriate materials into Gaza," said Gaylard.

The Gaza offensive destroyed nearly 4,000 homes and damaged 40,000 buildings, said Gaylard, who added that windows have become a rare commodity. Near-by falling bombs and low-flying missiles have blown out the glass in windows, even in Gaylard's office.

The Israeli blockade was established to protect the 400,000 Israelis living in roughly 149 settlements, he added, saying all the United Nations could do was wait until restrictions were eased.

Both the United States and the United Nations have urged Israel to lift the blockade and ease restrictions on movement but so far, Israel has refused.

According to a report released on Wednesday by UNRWA, the blockade is the root cause of unprecedented poverty in Gaza, which began in late 2000.

"The root cause of the crisis remains the system of mobility restrictions in the West Bank, the almost total siege of Gaza, and the isolation of the two territories from each other and the outside world by the Government of Israel," it says.

UNRWA assistance rose to US$118.9 million in 2007, an increase of 16.4 percent relative to 2006. Total estimated recipients were 1.24 million refugees, an increase of about 6.7 percent over 2006. The West Bank's share of total assistance received climbed to 39 percent while Gaza's share of assistance declined to 61 percent.

However, the report notes that "increasing levels of assistance have been insufficient to stem the growth of poverty among refugees," adding that "socio-economic conditions have continued to deteriorate."

(Xinhua News Agency May 29, 2009)