The reconstruction of what was destroyed in Gaza is progressing very slowly

SAUD ABU RAMADAN

Gaza

The latest round of a military escalation between the Israeli army and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement in the Gaza Strip has exacerbated the reconstruction crisis due to the absence of international donors.

On August 5, the Israeli Army launched a three-day military offensive on the coastal enclave. Israeli warplanes targeted a residential apartment in a tower in central Gaza City, killing Taysir al-Jabari, a commander of the Al-Quds Brigade, the PIJ's armed wing.

In addition, the Israeli Army launched dozens of airstrikes against military installations and residential buildings, claiming that they belonged to the movement and its activists.

At least 50 Palestinians, including 17 children and four women, were killed, and more than 350 wounded, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.

The two sides reached an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire agreement to end a round of tension in the Gaza Strip, considered the most serious since May 2021.

This latest military escalation came after violent military clashes between armed Palestinian factions and Israel that lasted 11 days in May 2021. A new conflict that left more than 255 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead and ended after Egyptian mediation.

Ghassan Aburamadan, a citizen of Gaza, lost his house on the first day of the latest military tension after Israeli warplanes attacked it with several missiles and killed Al-Jaabari, who was in the Palestinian Tower, in the center of the city. from Gaza.

“My family and I were miraculously spared from death,” says the 62-year-old father of four, explaining that all members of his family were injured during the Israeli attack.

His house was destroyed during the Israeli incursion. "Currently I live in a small house that consists of a room and a living room (...), together with my family of 19 people," she says.

Aburamadan expresses his fear that the reconstruction process will be delayed, which means that his family will be displaced for many years, as was the case with dozens of Gazan families who lost their homes in previous Israeli wars.

The situation is not much different for Khalil Kanoun, 36, a father of four and Aburamadan's neighbor in the Palestine Tower, whose apartment was badly damaged and is no longer habitable.

"More than 500 people who used to live in this 12-story tower are now homeless, what sin have we committed to be displaced in this way?" he asks.

Kanoun calls on the international community to pressure Israel to respect civilians during the armed conflict in Gaza and to fund the reconstruction of Palestinians to help them rebuild their homes destroyed in Israeli wars.

Aburamadan and Kanoun are part of the 36 families who lived in the same tower and who were forced to move from their apartments, totally or partially destroyed.

Both fear that they will not have adequate funds to rebuild their homes and those of those who lost their homes in the 2021 Israeli military offensive.

The reconstruction of Gaza is taking place outside the Palestinian Authority, as the Gaza Strip Ministry of Works submits the necessary technical reports to donors such as Qatar or the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for the Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Then, these agencies make the disbursements to the beneficiaries.

The process of building the houses goes through stages, as these parties follow the entire process to continue with the disbursement, which makes the construction take longer than usual due to the Israeli requirements for new construction.

“The recent Israeli escalation in the Strip destroyed 25 houses, 80 partially uninhabitable and 1908 partially uninhabitable,” explains Naji Sarhan, deputy secretary of the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Public Works and Housing.

Sarhan says that the absence of donors is the most prominent feature of the reconstruction process compared to the 2014 reconstruction process.

In addition, it highlights that there is a complete absence of the role of the Palestinian Authority, which is considered the internationally recognized body.

Until now, the reconstruction process is limited to a specific aspect of the housing sector represented only by housing units. There are no commitments to build the towers destroyed in the war in 2021 or those that were destroyed in 2012 and 2014.

What is in execution corresponding to the 2021 aggression are 700 damaged homes of the total of 1.700, which constitutes only 40% in addition to what was damaged in the last aggression, whose construction did not start.

Sarhan indicated that in other sectors, such as industry and agriculture, in addition to the towers and huge buildings with dozens of houses, no progress has been made due to the lack of approval of the reconstruction process.

And he estimated at one billion dollars the cost of rebuilding the total damage suffered during the previous wars in the Gaza Strip, including 230 million dollars for the housing sector and 800 million dollars to compensate those affected in economy, industry or agriculture.

The Gaza Strip, where more than 2,3 million people live, suffers from difficult economic and living conditions due to the 16-year Israeli blockade and the negative consequences of the internal division of Palestine.

As a result, the coastal enclave suffers from high rates of poverty and unemployment.

The latest report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) noted that in 2021 unemployment was still 26% in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, while in Gaza more than half of the working population was unemployed and 83% of workers received less than the minimum wage.

Poverty has become more acute and the latest data indicates that 36% of the Palestinian population lives below the poverty line. Food insecurity increased from 9% to 23% in the West Bank and from 50% to 53% in Gaza.

Saud Abu Ramadan is a Palestinian journalist and lives in Gaza.
SAUD ABU RAMADAN