He added that he was unemployed for several months, "even during the war ... Israel destroys buildings and we find jobs," he said in a sense of humor.

Official estimations issued by the deposed government of Hamas said that 16 ministry buildings, all the main security headquarters, around 50 mosques, one university, one hospital, 5,000 houses were destroyed, while 20,000 other houses were damaged due to the Israeli air and ground strikes.

A statement issued by the Hamas ministry of work and housing said that Gaza Strip would need around US$2 billion to reconstruct what had been destroyed, mainly buildings and infrastructure.

Hamas movement, which has been ruling the Gaza Strip since June 2007 after taking it by force and routing rival moderate President Mahmoud Abbas, said that it is the legal authority that should handle restructuring Gaza.

However, Hamas minister of work and housing Yousef al-Mansi said that Hamas does not oppose the idea of sharing the restructuring of the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian National Authority based in Ramallah in the West Bank.

But he conditioned that "legal leadership of the Palestinians in Gaza is the one who should be in charge of any process of reconstruction," adding that his government "has already formed a Gaza restructuring committee."

Members of the committee were seen visiting sites allover the Gaza Strip, where they collect information and data on how much the damage was.

"We go to visit these place and sites, meet the owner or the landlord, and we fill in applications that include complete date about the family and their property that was destroyed," said Ahmed el-Ashi, a 24-year-old volunteer, working with the committee.

"My family and I live now at my parents-in-law. I don't know how much I'm going to be compensated," said Zeyad al-Haddad, a 45-year-old Palestinian that has his apartment badly damaged in Tal el-Hawa neighborhood in southern Gaza City.

"I believe that the money of the whole world won't compensate the Palestinians for their suffering. Thousands of people were killed and thousands of houses were destroyed. I believe that money won't help," al-Haddad continued saying.

Many Palestinians believe that as long as the rival Fatah and Islamic Hamas movement are still arguing and disputing, the restructure of the Gaza Strip would take a very long time until they find a way to achieve a national reconciliation.

Egypt has presented a three-phase initiative to end the crisis in the Gaza Strip. The first phase was to end immediately the Israeli offensive on Gaza, which has been already implemented, the second phase is to reinforce a long-term truce, and the third is to achieve an internal Palestinian reconciliation.

Ibrahim Abu el-Naja, a senior Gaza Fatah leader said that Fatah wants to reach a package agreement, which includes a reconciliation, forming a national unity government, restructuring the Gaza Strip and rebuilding the Palestinian security forces. 

(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2009)