UN, PNA to rebuild 24,000 destroyed Gaza houses

The UN has notified the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) that construction raw material to rebuild some 24,000 destroyed houses will be allowed soon into Gaza Strip, a senior official said Monday.

Mufied Hassayna, the Palestinian unity government's minister of housing and public work, told reporters in Gaza that UN representatives officially informed the Palestinian government on allowing construction material into Gaza Strip.

He made the statement at a ceremony for signing an agreement with the Qatari Red Crescent in Gaza to bring 100 caravans for those whose homes were destroyed 50-day Israeli offensive on Gaza this summer.

"Officials at (the office of) UN envoy Robert Serry told me that construction raw materials to build 24,000 houses will be allowed in Gaza soon," Xinhbua quoted Hassayna as saying. "The names of destroyed houses' owners to receive raw materials will be published soon."

Thousands of houses in Gaza were either completely destroyed or badly damaged during the large-scale air and ground Israeli military offensive which ended Aug 26 after lasting for 50 days.

"We hope that the process of reconstruction in Gaza will start very soon after Qatar pledged $200 million for this purpose. We hope that construction raw materials will be allowed in the Gaza Strip the next (few) months," Hassayna said.

Donors held a conference in Cairo Oct 12 to debate on the reconstruction for what had been destroyed during the Israeli offensive, pledging $5.4 billion for this purpose.

However, disagreement on the mechanisms of allowing the raw materials to Gaza has postponed the whole process.