Lack of Materials Bogs Down Gaza Reconstruction

BUREJ REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza -- Fatma Wishah, 65, is just trying to make ends meet. One of her sons, Mahmoud, owns a small hardware store in this densely packed refugee camp. His main business is selling sacks of powdered cement that come into Gaza via illegal tunnels from Egypt.

"Everything is so expensive and getting more so," she told AOL News. "Since the trouble in Egypt, cooking oil now costs almost $2 a quart (up from $1.50). Cigarettes, rice, tea, everything's going up."

According to United Nations statistics, 70 percent of Gaza's population of 1.8 million lives below the poverty line, which is defined as $2 per person per day. Hundreds of Gaza's factories have closed over the past 10 years, and tens of thousands of workers who used to commute to jobs in Israel are no longer allowed to cross into Israel.

Things got even harder when Israel launched a large-scale incursion into Gaza to stop Hamas rocket fire on Israel. The fighting ended two years ago, but almost nothing destroyed has been rebuilt since the Israeli withdrawal, mostly because Israel continues to refuse to allow most building materials into Gaza, saying iron and cement can be used to make weapons.

Yusuf al-Mansi, the Hamas minister of public works and reconstruction, told AOL News that during the war, 50,000 homes were damaged and some 5,000 were destroyed. Dozens of schools and Gaza's main power plant also were hit.

"For the past four years (since Hamas took over Gaza) there has been a systematic destruction of homes and buildings across the Gaza Strip," he said during an interview in his office. "And Israel has not allowed a single bag of cement into Gaza for reconstruction."

Last month, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh announced that a major reconstruction effort would begin "within 48 hours." He said the money would come from the government and not from the $7 billion the international community has pledged for reconstruction. He did not say where Hamas would get the funds.

In Gaza, there is no sign of the reconstruction. Most of the rubble has been cleared away and dumped in empty areas in northern Gaza. But there are few building projects in progress.

The responsibility for reconstruction has fallen on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA), which helps the more than 1 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza.

UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna says the U.N. has completed rebuilding 150 housing units in southern Gaza and is now rebuilding seven schools. But, he says, the process of getting Israeli approval for the building materials is slow and complicated.

"If it continues like this, it will take years and years to rebuild what has been destroyed," he told AOL News. "We need hundreds and hundreds of tons of cement and iron."

Most of the building materials entering Gaza these days come through illegal underground tunnels between Egypt and Gaza. Large bags of cement powder are readily available in shops around Gaza. But residents here say the Egyptian cement is inferior to the Israeli cement and more expensive.

Abu Hasna says the U.N. is not allowed to use cement brought in illegally from Egypt and must get Israeli permission for rebuilding efforts.

Hamas minister al-Mansi says UNRWA should be doing more to pressure Israel to allow more building materials in.

"'The U.N. does not have an effective role in solving the problem of the Palestinians here," he said. "The U.N. has sided with those who are besieging the Palestinians and refuses to pressure Israel."

On hearing al-Mansi's complaint, Abu Hasna sighs and says that the U.N. has no political mandate and cannot pressure Israel.

Some in Gaza are looking for other solutions. Imad al-Khaldi, an engineer, has devised a way to build homes using bricks made out of pressurized sand, a resource not lacking in Gaza's desert. The homes cost about $10,000 more than conventional homes but do not need imported cement or iron. Yet al-Khaldi says he has encountered bureaucratic obstacles that made his work impossible.

As always, those who suffer most are the Gazan people, many already teetering on the edge of poverty. Those who lost their homes in the fighting have moved in with relatives or rented apartments. Crowded schools are adding second and third shifts, with more than 40 children per class.

Hamas officials are looking nervously at events in neighboring Egypt and hoping that despite the slow pace of reconstruction, Gazans will continue to aim their frustration at Israel and not at Hamas.