GAZA (Dispatches) – The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has warned of the shortage of raw materials to launch reconstruction in the Gaza Strip.
Director of UNRWA in Gaza Sam Rose said in a press statement that the lack of raw materials for starting the reconstruction plan “was due to the closure of the only commercial crossing between Gaza and Israel.”
“Reconstruction in the Gaza Strip has not started yet, and we, like many others, are deeply concerned over the continued closure of the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing point,” he said.
On Sunday, the Zionist regime reportedly started to ease restrictions that had been imposed on the Gaza Strip since the last round of tension that lasted for 11 days and ended on May 21.
Rose stressed the need to reach beyond the humanitarian relief through the commercial crossing between the Palestinian and Zionist sides to support the reconstruction process in Gaza.
The last round of fighting left more than 250 Palestinians dead, in addition to the large destruction of houses, buildings and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.
The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli land, air and sea blockade since June 2007, after Hamas, which has vowed to resist the Zionist regime’s occupation, rose to power in the enclave, where two million people live. The crippling Gaza blockade has caused a sharp decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty in the strip.
The International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza has warned that power shortages pose a threat to the health and daily life for the population of the besieged Gaza Strip, saying 80% of Gazans live much of their day in the dark.
In a new study, the ICRC found that electricity supply reaches 10-12 hours a day in the coastal enclave, noting that “extreme heat and import restrictions of fuel to run the Gaza power plant pose a threat to health and daily life for Gazans.”
According to the study, most of Gazans are unable to refrigerate food and wastewater treatment plants are unable to operate because of the power crisis.
It also said that 94% of those surveyed by the ICRC said the prolonged situation had affected their mental health.