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<h1 class="page__title title balance-text" id="page-title">Gaza aid
pledges fail to materialize</h1>
<header class="node__header">
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/isra-saleh-el-namey"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"
datatype="">Isra Saleh el-Namey</a></span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single" property="dc:date"
datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-10-29T17:44:00+00:00">29
October 2015<br>
<b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/gaza-aid-pledges-fail-materialize/14961">https://electronicintifada.net/content/gaza-aid-pledges-fail-materialize/14961</a></small></small></b><br>
</span></span> </p>
</header>
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<p>For more than a year, Ahmad al-Hamayda, his six siblings and
their elderly parents have been forced to live in a cramped
apartment. Their two-story house in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/khan-younis">Khan
Younis</a>, a city in southern Gaza, was totally destroyed by
Israel during 2014.</p>
<p>Al-Hamayda had spent all of his 24 years in that house. At the
time Israel dropped its bombs, the family had just been evacuated
after a neighboring building was hit by a small missile. This was
interpreted as a warning that a larger assault on the surrounding
area was imminent.</p>
<p>“We turned back to see our home was reduced to rubble,”
al-Hamayda said.</p>
<p>Promises have been made by officialdom that the house and others
in the neighborhood will be rebuilt with aid from <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/kuwait">Kuwait</a>.
Yet none of the $200 million pledged by Kuwait in Cairo has been
made available, according to World Bank <a
href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/rebuilding-gaza-donor-pledges">data</a>.</p>
<p>“Whenever I go to ask the [Gaza] housing ministry, they keep on
delaying things,” al-Hamayda said. “It has been very frustrating.”</p>
<p>As their uncertainty continues, the al-Hamayda family struggles
to make ends meet. The United Nations has covered their monthly
rent of $200 for the apartment where they now live on just two
occasions in the past year. The rest of the time the family has
had to pay the full amount themselves.</p>
<p>Their plight is in no way unique.</p>
<p><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/unrwa">UNRWA</a>,
the UN agency for Palestine refugees, <a
href="http://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/features/%E2%80%9Cafter-70-days-i-held-new-keys-my-hands%E2%80%9D">reported</a>
last week that 13,167 refugee families in Gaza remain displaced
because of the damage done to their homes by Israel’s 2014 attack.</p>
<p>So far, just one refugee family has had its home completely
rebuilt, with the agency’s support.</p>
<p><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/adnan-abu-hasna">Adnan
Abu Hasna</a>, a spokesperson for UNRWA, said that the agency
had finished its repairs on some 70,000 homes which had been
partially damaged in the Israeli attack.</p>
<h2>Shortfall</h2>
<p>“We try to give priority to large families in many cases,” he
told The Electronic Intifada. Yet he acknowledged that many
families have not received any assistance because of a funding
shortfall.</p>
<p>Twelve months have elapsed since an October 2014 reconstruction
conference for Gaza was held in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/location/cairo">Cairo</a>.
Only around 35 percent of the $3.5 billion pledged to Gaza on that
occasion has been made available, according to the World Bank’s
most recent data.</p>
<p>Reconstruction has been further <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/why-has-there-been-almost-no-reconstruction-gaza">hampered</a>
by Israel’s refusal to allow many building supplies into Gaza, on
the pretext that some items could prove useful to <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/hamas">Hamas</a> or
other armed resistance groups.</p>
<p>Israel only <a
href="http://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/emergency-reports/gaza-situation-report-115">removed</a>
import restrictions on aggregate material required for
construction this month. The Israeli authorities are still
limiting the amount of concrete, steel bars, electrical goods,
pipes and wood thicker than one centimeter that may enter Gaza.</p>
<p>According to UNRWA, aid agencies have to deal with a “lengthy and
cumbersome approval process” in order to access essential
material.</p>
<p>The World Bank <a
href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/09/25081078/economic-monitoring-report-ad-hoc-liaison-committee-vol-2-main-report">reported</a>
last month that UNRWA “claims it incurred $7.5 million in
additional costs in 2014 alone, which is equivalent to the cost of
building four UNRWA schools, as a result of Israeli requirements
on access and monitoring of imported materials into Gaza.”</p>
<h2>Living in ruins</h2>
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<p>Najwa Abuktifa’s husband died three months ago. As a result, she
has to look after five teenagers on her own.</p>
<p>The family are living in what remains of their home in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/beit-hanoun">Beit
Hanoun</a>, a village in the north of Gaza.</p>
<p>“I have no alternative,” she said.</p>
<p>She has been promised $5,000 in aid by the authorities. “I did
not receive even one dollar,” she said. “And even the full amount
that has been pledged would not be enough to repair my badly
damaged home.”</p>
<p>Maryam Hassan, 57, has to share a small rented flat with her four
sons, two of whom are married with children. Her husband was also
killed when Israel shelled their home in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/rafah">Rafah</a>, near
Gaza’s border with <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/egypt">Egypt</a>, last
year.</p>
<p>The flat is located on the fifth floor of a building. Climbing up
to it proves difficult for Hassan, who has osteoarthritis.</p>
<p>“The UN has promised to bring us the construction materials that
we need [to repair our home],” she said. “We have been waiting for
long time for this promise to come true.”</p>
<p>The home of Jameel al-Bawab, 53, was flattened during what has
become known as <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/israel-intentionally-killed-civilians-after-soldiers-capture-gaza-amnesty">Black
Friday</a> — a 1 August 2014 offensive against Rafah. Between
135 and 200 civilians were killed by Israel in that massacre.</p>
<p>“We lost our belongings, furniture, and more than $7,000,”
al-Bawab said.</p>
<p>Last month, he received some aid from <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/qatar">Qatar</a> to
begin building a one-story home for his family.</p>
<p>Before moving into a flat, he and 14 members of his family had to
share three tents between them. Their time in tents lasted more
than six months, including an often harsh winter.</p>
<p>Thousands of families in Gaza are facing yet another winter
without adequate shelter.</p>
<p><em>Isra Saleh el-Namey is a journalist from Gaza.</em></p>
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