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<h1 class="title" id="page-title">UN halts aid to Gaza homeless
after funding shortfall</h1>
<div class="submitted"> <span property="dc:date dc:created"
content="2015-01-28T02:47:52+00:00" datatype="xsd:dateTime"
rel="sioc:has_creator">Submitted by <span class="username"
xml:lang="" about="/users/maureen-clare-murphy"
typeof="sioc:UserAccount" property="foaf:name" datatype="">Maureen
Clare Murphy</span> on Wed, 01/28/2015 - 02:47<br>
<b><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/un-halts-aid-gaza-homeless-after-funding-shortfall">http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/un-halts-aid-gaza-homeless-after-funding-shortfall</a></small></small></small></b><br>
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<p>A shortfall in funding has forced <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/unrwa">UNRWA</a>,
the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees, to suspend
aid to thousands of Gaza residents whose homes were destroyed
or damaged during Israel’s military assault last summer.</p>
<p>It is another bitter reminder for Palestinians in Gaza that
they are left to fend for themselves after eight years of <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-siege">siege</a>
and a series of major military assaults that have turned the
tiny coastal territory into a disaster zone cut off from the
rest of the world.</p>
<p>UNRWA <a
href="http://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/press-releases/lack-funds-forces-unrwa-suspend-cash-assistance-repairs-damaged-and">stated
today</a> that there is a shortfall of $585 million for the
$720 million the agency says is required for the tens of
thousands whose homes need repairing and for rental subsidies
to those made homeless.</p>
<p>“While some funds remain available to begin the
reconstruction of totally destroyed homes, the agency has
exhausted all funding to support repairs and rental
subsidies,” UNRWA said, adding that the freezing of assistance
may cause large numbers of refugees to return to agency
schools for shelter.</p>
<p>More than a quarter of Gaza’s population was <a
href="http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/mira_summary_mak_8september2014_english.pdf">displaced</a>
during last summer’s violence, with nearly 300,000 seeking
shelter in UNRWA schools.</p>
<p>Not even these emergency shelters were spared by Israel —
UNRWA schools were hit by shells or other weaponry in <a
href="http://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/statement-commissioner-general-opening-school-year-gaza">seven
instances</a>; <a
href="http://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/unrwa-strongly-condemns-israeli-shelling-its-school-gaza-serious">children
were killed by Israeli artillery</a> as they slept on the
floor of a classroom in one such UN designated shelter.</p>
<p>Twelve thousand displaced Palestnians in Gaza continue to
take shelter at UNRWA schools, the agency said today.</p>
<p>“UNRWA in Gaza has so far provided over $77 million to 66,000
Palestine refugee families to repair their homes or find a
temporary alternative,” Robert Turner, UNRWA director in Gaza,
is quoted as saying in the agency’s statement.</p>
<p>Of the $5.4 billion pledged for the reconstruction of Gaza at
a Cairo conference last October, half of which the
Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/who-benefits-billions-pledged-gaza-reconstruction">immediately
earmarked for itself</a>, “virtually none of it has reached
Gaza,” Turner added.</p>
<p>“It is unclear why this funding has not been forthcoming,” he
said.</p>
<h2>Refugees</h2>
<p>More than 96,000 refugees’ homes were destroyed during the 51
days of relentless attacks in July and August, according to
UNRWA.</p>
<p>The majority of Gaza’s estimated 1.8 million residents are
refugees who were displaced from towns, cities and villages in
present-day Israel during the establishment of the state in
1948 and who have since been denied their right to return.</p>
<p>Along with the West Bank and Syrian Golan Heights, the Gaza
Strip has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967.</p>
<p>More than 2,200 Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 500
children, were killed during Israel’s summer bombardment.</p>
<h2>Babies freeze to death</h2>
<p>The task of rebuilding Gaza’s housing stock — at least five
percent of which was destroyed or badly damaged during the
last onslaught — is a matter of life or death.</p>
<p>“People are literally sleeping amongst the rubble, children
have died of hypothermia,” Robert Turner said.</p>
<p>Two infants in Gaza died of cold exposure during a winter
storm that struck the region earlier this month, and which
also caused the temporary displacement of hundreds of people
due to flooding, <a
href="http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_protection_of_civilians_weekly_report_2014_01_15_english.pdf">according
to the UN monitoring group OCHA</a>.</p>
<p>Palestinians in Gaza are enduring the cold winter months with
<a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/gaza-struggles-cope-siege-and-storms/14186">only
a few hours of electricity each day</a>.</p>
<p>OCHA recorded the deaths of two small children who died after
their home in the Beach refugee camp caught fire on 3 January.</p>
<p>“Initial investigations suggest that the fire was caused by a
candle,” OCHA stated. “According to Al Mezan Center for Human
Rights, 26 people, including 21 children, have died in
electricity shortage related incidents since 2010.”</p>
<p>Gaza’s sole power plant has not run at full capacity for
several months because of the lack of funds for fuel.</p>
<p>According to OCHA, the funding crisis is due to the
expiration of a tax exemption for fuel purchases granted by
the Ramallah-based Ministry of Finance. The further
impoverishment of Gaza’s population this summer, resulting in
the sharp decrease of revenues collected for energy
consumption, is also a factor, the group says.</p>
<h2>Israeli control</h2>
<p>While UNRWA says that its cash assistance program has been
frozen because of funding gaps, the rebuilding of Gaza is
ultimately under the control of the very party responsible for
its destruction.</p>
<p>The secret terms of a UN-backed Gaza reconstruction mechanism
“include onerous controls of building supplies and intrusive
monitoring of Palestinian families seeking to rebuild homes
destroyed by Israel,” The Electronic Intifada <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/oxfam-finally-breaks-silence-uns-failed-gaza-reconstruction-mechanism">revealed</a> in
October.</p>
<p>Israel meanwhile continues to violate on an <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-violates-gaza-ceasefire-nearly-every-day">almost
daily basis</a> the ceasefire that it reached with armed
groups in Gaza on 26 August.</p>
<p>The call from Palestinians in Gaza at the time was that there
should be no such agreement so long as Israel’s years-long
siege — imposed in an act of collective punishment after the
elected Hamas government took control over the administration
of the internal affairs of the territory — remains in place.</p>
<p>“For the last seven years, Israel has subjected the Gaza
Strip to a strict closure. By shutting the borders, Israel has
slowly suffocated Gaza, subjecting us to a process of
deliberate de-development,” Raji Sourani, director of the
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/why-gaza-ceasefire-isnt-enough/13692">commented</a>
amidst the summer’s terrible violence.</p>
<p>“A ceasefire is not enough. It will not end the suffering. It
will only move us from the horror of death by bombardment to
the horror of death by slow strangulation,” he added.</p>
<p>Though the terms of the ceasefire agreement were never made
public, they reportedly called for the opening of Gaza’s
crossings for the movement of people and goods.</p>
<p>That has not happened, and the reconstruction mechanism
ensures that Israel’s stranglehold on Gaza is tighter today
than before the summer war.</p>
<p>And once again Palestinian refugees in Gaza are living in
tents, like they did after their original displacement in
1948.</p>
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