UNRWA Begins Reconstruction in Gaza After Israeli Aggression

Houses destroyed in Gaza Strip after the Israeli aggression (File photo: Reuters)
Houses destroyed in Gaza Strip after the Israeli aggression (File photo: Reuters)
TT

UNRWA Begins Reconstruction in Gaza After Israeli Aggression

Houses destroyed in Gaza Strip after the Israeli aggression (File photo: Reuters)
Houses destroyed in Gaza Strip after the Israeli aggression (File photo: Reuters)

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) will start rebuilding houses destroyed in the Gaza Strip and pay financial compensation to those affected by the latest Israeli aggression.

UNRWA media advisor Adnan Abu Hasna told local al-Aqsa Radio that over the past period, the UNRWA spent "rental allowance" for six months and will pay for four others.

Israel carried out 11-day aggression on Gaza, and it ended by declaring a ceasefire on May 21.

Abu Hasna also noted there had been no development so far regarding the issue of those affected by the 2014 war, which lasted 51 days and left massive destruction at the time.

The aggression caused severe destruction to 1,335 residential institutions, and moderate destruction to around 12,886 houses, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza.

UNRWA launched this operation in coordination with the Ministry of Works in Gaza, responsible for non-refugees and UNDP, and other UN institutions.

Egypt is working with a $500 million grant to build three housing complexes in the Gaza Strip, including the American School in the north of Gaza, the area of ​​​​the veterans in al-Karama, and al-Zahra.

Cairo supervised the first phase of the reconstruction process, which included removing the rubble, with the participation of Egyptian technical teams.

Qatar also provided a $500 million grant, Germany $9 million. Some donations were provided by international and local countries and institutions, estimated at nearly $20 million.

Officials in Gaza say the first stage of the reconstruction process is valued at $310 million, while the reconstruction and development stage is about $3.6 billion.

It is noteworthy that the total amount required for the reconstruction of the Strip, according to the National Plan for the Reconstruction of Gaza approved at the 2014 Cairo Conference, is about $3.9 billion.

Donors pledged nearly $5 billion, including $3.5 billion for the enclave's reconstruction. Still, the total amount received from pledges amounted to almost $900 million, representing 26 percent of the general pledges for the reconstruction process.



Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
TT

Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled.

The warning came a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant more than a year into the Gaza war.

The United Nations and others have repeatedly decried humanitarian conditions, particularly in northern Gaza, where Israel said Friday it had killed two commanders involved in Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.

Gaza medics said an overnight Israeli raid on the cities of Beit Lahia and nearby Jabalia resulted in dozens killed or missing.

Marwan al-Hams, director of Gaza's field hospitals, told reporters all hospitals in the Palestinian territory "will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation's (Israel's) obstruction of fuel entry".

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of 80 patients, including 8 in the intensive care unit" at Kamal Adwan hospital, one of just two partly operating in northern Gaza.

Kamal Adwan director Hossam Abu Safia told AFP it was "deliberately hit by Israeli shelling for the second day" Friday and that "one doctor and some patients were injured".

Late Thursday, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Muhannad Hadi, said: "The delivery of critical aid across Gaza, including food, water, fuel and medical supplies, is grinding to a halt."

He said that for more than six weeks, Israeli authorities "have been banning commercial imports" while "a surge in armed looting" has hit aid convoys.

Issuing the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the Hague-based ICC said there were "reasonable grounds" to believe they bore "criminal responsibility" for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and crimes against humanity including over "the lack of food, water, electricity and fuel, and specific medical supplies".

At least 44,056 people have been killed in Gaza during more than 13 months of war, most of them civilians, according to figures from Gaza's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.