Israel okays Qatari-funded Gaza reconstruction projects

The Chairman of the Qatari National Committee for Reconstruction of Gaza, Muhammad al-Amadi, announced Saturday that Israel had approved a number of new reconstruction projects after the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas devastated parts of the coastal enclave last year.

“The reconstruction process is progressing very well as construction material is being shipped to Gaza everyday without any obstacles,” al-Amadi told the Palestinian news outlet Ma’an.

The Qatari-funded projects come after a recent World Bank report found that slow reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip could lead to a “dangerous financial crisis” or a renewal of hostilities between Israel and the terror organization.

Al-Amadi said that contracts for additional reconstruction projects had been signed, and new bids for other protects would be made in the near future.

The new ventures include the restoration of several damaged roads and the construction of a complex which will house former prisoners in 360 new housing units.

Last week the International Monetary Fund said that the reconstruction of the coastal enclave was progressing “far more slowly than expected,” and reported that only just over a quarter of the $3.5 billion pledged by the international community to rebuild Gaza had been distributed.

In addition to the slow response by donor nations, aid agencies and analysts have said that the political wrangling between Hamas and Fatah and Israel’s continued embargo over the Gaza Strip have furthered hampered rehabilitation efforts.

More than 2,200 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, were killed in the fighting, according to United Nations figures. On the Israeli side, 66 soldiers and six civilians were killed. Hamas and other terror groups fired over 4,500 projectiles at Israel, and carried out a series of terror attacks through tunnels dug under the border. Israel says half of those killed in Gaza were gunmen, and blames Hamas for all civilian fatalities in the Strip given Gazan fighters’ practice of embedding their military infrastructure in civilian areas.

The war destroyed 18,000 homes in Gaza and damaged thousands more, displacing an estimated 100,000 people, according to the UN.

Israel controls two of the three land crossings into Gaza and closely monitors construction materials into the Palestinian enclave out of fear they could be used as weapons or to build attack tunnels by Hamas terrorists. Hamas, which seeks to destroy Israel, seized control of Gaza in 2007.

AFP and AP contributed to this report