GAZA CITY: With thousands of homes reduced to rubble and its infrastructure in ruins, Gaza's reconstruction will cost billions and require at least an easing of Israel's blockade to allow in building materials.
Cement will be key among these materials, but its import will be controversial since it has been at the heart of an underground war between Israel and Hamas.
From Beit Lahiya in the north, to Rafah in the south, Israel's latest offensive has left swathes of the Gaza Strip in ruins.
Families come during brief lulls in the fighting to sift through the debris of their homes for possessions, waiting to start rebuilding their lives.
In front of his apartment -- reduced to a grey mass of dust, rubble and twisted iron -- Jamal Abed drags on a cigarette as he thumbs his prayer beads.
"They destroyed everything here, there's nothing we can do," he says.
He knows he could spend months, even years, without somewhere to live because his home will have to be completely levelled before it can be rebuilt.
But for reconstruction to start, there has to be a negotiated end to the fighting.
There also has to be cement, lots of it, and the Palestinian enclave is suffering a chronic shortage of this crucial construction material.
Israel first imposed a blockade on Gaza in summer 2006 after militants in the territory seized one of its soldiers in a cross-border tunnel attack.
It was significantly tightened a year later after the Hamas seized control of the enclave, with Israel imposing severe restrictions on the entry of cement, gravel and steel.
Israel said the restrictions were aimed at stopping militants from building bunkers and other fortifications.
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