Media coverage
Al Jazeera Net · 2021-11-21
The report examines Egypt’s return to a political role in the Gaza Strip through reconstruction projects after the latest war between Israel and Palestinian resistance factions, including the construction of the Corniche road and housing areas under a $500 million Egyptian grant. Economist Omar Shaban says Cairo aims to consolidate its oversight of the ceasefire by engaging in reconstruction, while Hamas needs to maintain good relations with Egypt because of the shared border and the Rafah crossing. The piece also outlines the scale of destruction and losses, and the overlap between the Egyptian and Qatari roles in aid and reconstruction in Gaza.
The report examines Egypt’s return to a political role in the Gaza Strip through reconstruction projects after the latest war between Israel and Palestinian resistance factions, including the construction of the Corniche road and housing areas under a $500 million Egyptian grant. Economist Omar Sha…
A huge portrait of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi towers over a street in Gaza, embodying Cairo’s determination to restore its political role in the besieged Palestinian enclave through the gateway of reconstruction after the latest war between Israel and the Palestinian resistance factions.
Weeks after the end of the war last May, Cairo sent Egyptian workers and technicians to the Palestinian enclave to build a main road along the seafront west of Gaza City, and two residential neighborhoods in the north and center of the Strip, which is ruled by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
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An Egyptian worker (30), who is taking part in the project and preferred not to give his name, said that he came to Gaza with about 70 engineers, workers, and truck drivers, adding: “I am happy to help our brothers in Palestine. The president’s instructions are to rebuild the Gaza Strip.”
A truck driver (26) said, “The first project we are carrying out is Al-Corniche Street,” noting that “the Egyptian grant also includes the construction of two residential cities: the first in Beit Hanoun (north), and the other in Al-Zahraa City” near the seashore.
During the war, Cairo played a key role in mediating between Israel and the resistance factions—foremost among them Hamas—to reach a ceasefire, and it announced support for reconstruction projects in the Strip with a $500 million financial grant.
The 11-day confrontation resulted in the killing of 260 Palestinians, including 66 children and a number of fighters, and 13 people on the Israeli side, including a soldier, according to sources on both sides. About 1,500 homes were completely destroyed, and around 60,000 Palestinian homes in the Strip were partially damaged.
Egypt’s role in the Gaza Strip had declined after Sisi ousted the late President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, who belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is close to Hamas.
Economic expert Omar Shaban says that the Egyptian president’s political vision is based on investing millions of dollars on the ground in the Gaza Strip, explaining that “seeing Egyptian workers in Gaza was something unexpected, and hard to imagine.”
He notes that “Egypt and Hamas are not friends, but they have common interests,” considering that “Cairo wants to continue supervising the ceasefire agreement by engaging in reconstruction.”
In order to rebuild infrastructure in the Strip, Hamas needs external assistance, which obliges it to maintain good relations with the Egyptian state, with which it shares a southern border. The Rafah crossing with Egypt is also the only outlet to the outside world not controlled by Israel, unlike the other crossings.
At the same time, Shaban believes that Egypt “realizes that it does not have many options in Gaza, as Hamas still rules the Strip after four wars with Israel and nearly 15 years of blockade.”
Israel tightened its land, sea, and air blockade on the Strip after Hamas took control of it in the summer of 2007. The Strip is a narrow, densely populated coastal strip, with nearly half its residents living below the poverty line.
Since Hamas rose to power, the State of Qatar has emerged as the largest donor to the Strip. But after the end of the latest war, the process of distributing Qatari humanitarian financial aid was suspended for three months because of discussions over the mechanism for bringing the money into the Strip.
Last month, Qatar succeeded in disbursing $10 million to around 100,000 poor families in the Strip, after Israel approved a new distribution mechanism under United Nations supervision.
Before the latest military confrontation in May, the transfer of Qatari funds to Gaza was carried out in cash through the Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing. But the dispute with Israel still persists over paying the salaries of Hamas government employees, as Israel opposes payment in cash for fear that the money could reach the armed Palestinian factions, according to its claims.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid recently urged Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, both of which maintain official relations with Israel, to engage in the reconstruction and development of the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas government estimates the direct losses from the latest Israeli war at about $479 million, in addition to about $600 million in losses from previous wars, according to Naji Sarhan, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Housing and Public Works in Gaza.
These estimates exclude the costs of solving the electricity and water crisis and repairing infrastructure, according to Sarhan, who believes that “assistance from Qatar is welcome, as is assistance from Egypt. We are coordinating among the countries.”
The Egyptian support for constructing the coastal road (Al-Corniche) comes as a continuation of a main road aimed at linking the north of the Gaza Strip to its south. Qatar had built part of it along the coast of Gaza City, noting that the road funded by Egypt requires the removal of dozens of homes in Al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City.
Sitting on a rocking chair inside her home, which is listed for removal under the project implementation plan, Ru’ya al-Hassi (83) said: “They told us that we would have to leave the place, and that we would get a new home.”
She continued: “I do not mind leaving, as long as I find a bedroom, a bathroom, and a kitchen.”
On the other side of the narrow road, businessman Maher al-Baqa oversees the construction of a large café on the beach, saying: “The new Corniche will attract many customers,” before adding with a smile: “But wait, this is Gaza! And we never know when a new war might break out!”
Text © Al Jazeera Net — archived here with attribution to the source. — Machine translation for archival reference. — Original source