Israel Blockade Forces Gaza Homes to be Rebuilt with Mud
Gaza - The authorities in Gaza have been forced to start rebuilding houses using mud bricks due to a lack of building materials because of the Israeli blockade, a Hamas official said Saturday. The 22-day assault on Gaza in January left 2,500 houses destroyed, and a further 1,000 homes partially destroyed, according to UN figures.
The windows of a further 30,000 homes were blown out. In March an international donors' conference in Egypt pledged a total of 4.5 billion dollars to help rebuild Gaza. "The tightening of the siege and the prevention of the raw materials for construction and manufacturing from coming through were the main motivations for the government to consider changing the building system in Gaza," said Hamas economy minister Ziad al-Zaza. Israel has imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip since Hamas took power in June 2007, routing the Fatah forces of Mahmoud Abbas. The blockade only permits small amounts of commercial goods, food, medicine and fuel to get through. Since the end of the Gaza offensive, launched in retaliation for rocket attacks on Israeli towns out of the Gaza Strip, Israel has not lifted its ban on the passage of construction materials such as cement and steel. Al-Zaza said the houses would be built from clay and mud bricks. "The debris of the houses would be used to support the solidity of the structures," he added. Some houses were already built of mud in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. The Hamas government will build schools and from clay if the mud- brick houses succeeded, according to al-Zaza.