Viewpoint
Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah has called on the international community to move beyond indignation and condemnation, to take effective measures to protect the Palestinian people and provide relief to Gaza and compel Israel to lift the unjust siege on Gaza Strip.
Hamdallah’s remarks came in his speech at the donor conference on reconstructing the Gaza Strip.
The Gaza Strip requires a real partnership with countries around the world to end injustice on it as well as it needs humanitarian needs and implementation of further development and dynamic projects.
The UN says some 75,000 Palestinians are still internally displaced in the Gaza Strip less than two years after the Israeli military’s 50-day war on the besieged enclave.
The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) announced in a report that nearly 500,000 Gazans, amounting to 28% of the population, were uprooted from their homes in Israel’s 2014 war.
The displaced had to take refuge in the schools set up by the local administration and UN aid workers as well as unofficial shelters and homes of host families.
About 23% of Gazans are still living in rubble of their destroyed homes, and nearly half of the displaced families (47%) do not have enough food to eat.
Additionally, three in four Gazans depend on trucked water because of inadequate clean water supplies from taps.
The UNOCHA further said more than 1,500 children were orphaned in the 2014 war, and that 551 children lost their lives and another 3,436 sustained injuries. A large number of the injured Gazan children are now coping with life-long disabilities.
The report went on to say that nearly one in six displaced children has been suffering from increased psycho-social distress since the 2014 war, but only 6% have received psycho-social support.
More than 30% of internally displaced women live in tents, makeshift shelters, destroyed houses and the open air, it added.
The UNOCHA estimated that some 70,000 units need to be constructed in the Gaza Strip to catch up on natural growth and the swelling effects of the 2014 war. The UN body expressed concern over Israeli regime’s restrictions on the import of cement into the blockaded Palestinian enclave.
The UN has decried the Israeli devastation and human suffering left behind by the offensives in Gaza as “unprecedented.”
Palestinian and international officials have warned of a potential slowdown in the reconstruction of Gaza, with only 40% of the money pledged after a 2014 war with Israel delivered.
The Palestinian prime minister said they were able to repair more than 100,000 partially damaged homes, but warned that funding was drying up.
Qatar has the best track record so far of rebuilding homes destroyed in the 2014 war. Qatar pledged $1bn to help rebuild Gaza, and a portion of that was allocated to reconstruct 1,000 demolished homes.
However, Gaza remains under an Israeli blockade, which limits the import and export of goods and restricts many basic materials, such as wood and concrete.
Reconstruction is progressing because of the excellent efforts of both the government of Palestine and international community, but the difficulties in Gaza remain.
