Nearly four months after the summer attacks ended, much of Gaza’s infrastructure still remains in shambles. In cities, towns and villages across the territory, entire neighborhoods are flattened. Due to strict Israeli restrictions and a lack of international action, reconstruction has hardly begun in most places. At a donors conference after the war, $5.4 billion was pledged for Gaza’s reconstruction, mostly by Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United States and the European Union. Only approximately half of that sum will go to Gaza’s reconstruction; the rest will instead be used to fill gaps in the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority’s budget. Meanwhile, only two percent of the pledged reconstruction aid has been delivered thus far. “We have received funding and pledges of approximately $100 million for shelter and repair,” said Robert Turner, director of operations for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, Reuters news agency reported. As a result of the ongoing Israeli blockade, which enjoys the support of the US-backed dictatorship in Egypt, construction supplies, such as steel and concrete, have trickled into the territory in quantities that don’t even come close to meeting Gaza’s immediate needs. According to the humanitarian aid coordination body Shelter Palestine, the import building materials in November “constituted 13 percent of the October 2013 level, which represents less than 30 percent of the materials imported before the blockade” began back in 2007. Muhammad al-Gharib says that the buildings and homes can eventually be rebuilt, but the lost lives can never be replaced. “Every aspect of life is entirely different without my father and sister,” he remarked solemnly. “Every day has become a struggle. It’s so hard.”A FEW BILLION OF THE 5.4 BILLION WILL GO TO ISRAEL. THERE IS NO SOLUTION FOR ISRAEL EXCEPT TO END IT AND STOP THE USAS AIPAC AND FUNDING.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 17:34:22 +0000
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