Media coverage
Al-Araby Al-Jadeed · 2021
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fear a repeat of the slow reconstruction that follows Israeli assaults, after the latest offensive caused widespread destruction to homes, towers, and public facilities, while some displaced people remain in shelter schools. Economists Omar Shaban and Maher Al-Tabba stress that reconstruction should be a national effort free from political competition, and that the main obstacles are previous reconstruction mechanisms, the absence of a political horizon, and the continued Israeli blockade and closure of the Kerem Abu Salem crossing.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fear a repeat of the slow reconstruction that follows Israeli assaults, after the latest offensive caused widespread destruction to homes, towers, and public facilities, while some displaced people remain in shelter schools. Economists Omar Shaban and Maher Al-Tabba s…
Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip fear a repeat of the scenarios of delay in the reconstruction of the enclave, which was subjected to Israeli aggression that, over 11 days of intense bombardment, left behind thousands of destroyed housing units, residential towers, and public facilities.
According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Public Works and Housing in Gaza, the Israeli aggression caused the complete destruction of around 1,800 housing units, while about 16,800 housing units were partially damaged, along with the destruction of five civilian towers, 74 public headquarters, facilities, and government utilities, the shelling of 66 schools, the destruction of 3 mosques, damage to 40 mosques, and damage to a church.
During the period of aggression on the Gaza Strip, around 50,000 Palestinians were displaced to schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), numbering about 40 schools spread across the Gaza Strip. Displaced people whose homes were completely destroyed turned to renting until their homes are rebuilt, while about 1,200 people remain in the shelter schools.
Economic expert Omar Shaban explained that the reconstruction process should not be a file for political competition, profiteering, or appropriation of funds, as “a number of international and UN institutions are in intense competition to obtain the largest possible amount of money.”
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Shaban told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that it is important for there to be a state of respect for the victims, and for the reconstruction file to represent “a Palestinian national workshop, in which everyone contributes, for volunteering and reconstruction, and for it to be a real opportunity to heal the Palestinian wound and reject division and discord, through coordination and the pooling of efforts.”
The economic expert stressed the need for reconstruction to proceed according to a mechanism different from the United Nations Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism, “which is categorically rejected, as it is considered one of the reasons for the slowness of the reconstruction process, which has caused around 1,500 Palestinian families to remain without shelter until now.”
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From Shaban’s point of view, the reconstruction process faces two challenges. The first is that donor countries will find no encouragement to rebuild what may be destroyed in the future, given that what was rebuilt in 2014 was destroyed in the latest aggression.
The European Union has officially announced its intention not to participate in reconstruction without a clear political horizon that guarantees that what can be rebuilt will not be destroyed, while the other challenge consists of the internal and accumulated crises produced by the internal Palestinian division.
The Israeli war on the Gaza Strip in 2014 caused the complete destruction of 12,000 housing units and partial damage to around 160,000 units, according to statistics from the Ministry of Public Works and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Arab countries had then pledged to provide $5.4 billion, half of which was allocated to meet some needs, while the other half was allocated to rebuilding Gaza.
Since 2014, the process of rebuilding demolished homes and repairing the destruction left by the war has been slow due to repeated Israeli prevention of the entry of construction materials into the Gaza Strip. Three years after the end of the war, the Ministry of Public Works announced the completion of the reconstruction of about 6,280 completely destroyed housing units and the reconstruction of around 18,000 partially damaged units, which has generated fears of a repeat of scenarios of slowness in the reconstruction and sheltering process.
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For his part, economic expert Maher al-Tabba’ explained that during the latest aggression, the Israeli occupation targeted everything, sparing neither green nor dry, leaving behind dozens of square kilometers of destroyed infrastructure, including sewage networks, electricity, water, and communications, in addition to destroying entire areas and isolating them from the world, and targeting homes, towers, apartments, and economic establishments.
## The main challenge in the process of rebuilding everything destroyed by the Israeli occupation is the continuation of the blockade on the Gaza Strip and the continued closure of the Kerem Abu Salem crossing
In his remarks to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, al-Tabba’ focused on the fact that the main challenge in the process of rebuilding everything destroyed by the Israeli occupation is the continuation of the blockade on the Gaza Strip and the continued closure of the Kerem Abu Salem crossing, which is considered the only commercial crossing in the Gaza Strip after the closure of all commercial crossings, and through which all needs in goods, humanitarian aid, fuel, and construction materials are brought in.
He stressed that the continued closure of the Kerem Abu Salem crossing will cause an economic, social, and humanitarian catastrophe, calling on the international community to move quickly to pressure Israel to open it, end the blockade on the Gaza Strip, and immediately begin rapid reconstruction of all the destruction left by the warplanes, whether in the latest aggression or in previous wars.
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Text © Al-Araby Al-Jadeed — archived here with attribution to the source. — Machine translation for archival reference. — Original source