PALESTINIANS-GAZA/AID A year after war, head of U.N. in Gaza says rebuilding to begin

Record ID: 148740

  • Title: PALESTINIANS-GAZA/AID A year after war, head of U.N. in Gaza says rebuilding to begin
  • Date: 2nd July 2015
  • Summary: SHEJAIA, GAZA (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF RESIDENTS WALKING AMID DEBRIS TOWARDS SHEJAIA NEIGHBOURHOOD DEVASTATED IN THE 2014 GAZA WAR VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING THROUGH STREET, SURROUNDED BY DESTROYED BUILDINGS VARIOUS OF BUILDINGS WHICH WERE DESTROYED DURING 2014 GAZA WAR
  • Embargoed: 17th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Gaza
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA19J8TS1OTK12JZN4L9M54YDLU
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Robert Turner has no quick and easy answer when asked to name the worst of times in his three years as director of the U.N.'s refugee aid agency in Gaza.
    "The first worst day was when we discovered the weapons in the school, that was the first worst day. But it became overcome by the strike on the school in Beit Hanoon and then Jabalia and then Rafah. And I think sequentially it just that it happened, that it kept happening," the Canadian diplomat said as he prepares to leave Gaza, where two-thirds of the 1.8 million people receive some form of aid.
    The 51-year-old's deployment with the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the Hamas-run territory included two wars - an eight-day conflict in 2013 and the devastating seven-week war last July and August that left tens of thousands of Palestinians homeless.
    But Turner, in an interview summing up his Gaza experiences, sounded a rare optimistic note, saying housing reconstruction, long delayed by Palestinian political infighting and Israeli and Egyptian border restrictions, could begin as early as next week.
    "Finally, last week the minister of public works and housing announced that the technical issues related to total reconstruction have been resolved, That there now would be what's called the residential stream for the Gaza reconstruction mechanism which would allow for the reconstruction of homes. We immediately the next day submitted the first batch of names of refugee families that had been identified, had their building permits ready and their building designs ready. Those were approved yesterday and we're signing undertakings and we plan to put money in their pockets next week," said Turner.
    On the ground, some districts of Gaza remain in ruins, particularly Shejaiya, one of the worst-affected by Israeli shelling. While most of the rubble has been cleared, none of the estimated 100,000 homes damaged or destroyed has been rebuilt.
    Turner said no new war between Israel and Hamas appeared to be imminent, with the two enemies showing little interest in fresh hostilities after last year's bloodshed in which more than 2,100 Palestinians and 73 Israelis were killed.
    "I don't think that the parties want it and I think in fact I think the parties are doing what they can to avoid it. The challenge in Gaza is always that there are spoilers, there are people that would like to initiate or at least to escalate the situation and then it gets very important that responsible actors do not get drowned into something they don't want.," the UN diplomat added.
    Turner assailed what he described as the lack of effective governance in Gaza, saying only the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority could fill any leadership vacuum.
    "The lack of effective governance is a challenge I think for the people of Gaza in particularly but more generally.. it should be the government that's really advocating for Gaza, for the Palestinians in Gaza and planning and making strategic decisions and there are people in very good faith that are working hard to try to do that but I think there remains this partial vacuum that only the Palestinian Authority can fill," he told Reuters.
    Donors, who have pledged $5.4 billion towards Gaza's reconstruction, most of which is yet unpaid, want to see the Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, take a role in governing Gaza and overseeing aid. Hamas, which seized the territory from forces loyal to Abbas in 2007, has resisted power sharing in Gaza, despite a unity deal signed last year.
    Neighbouring Egypt, whose military-run government views Hamas as an Islamist enemy, has destroyed a network of smuggling tunnels and has largely kept its Rafah border crossing, Gaza's main gateway to the world, closed.
    Israel allows in hundreds of truckloads of goods a day to Gaza but imposes tight restrictions on construction material it says could also be used for military purposes.
    The IMF last month declared the economy to be on the brink of collapse, with unemployment nearing 45 percent and output having contracted 15 percent last year alone.
    UNRWA, which operates 700 schools in Gaza and has deep budgetary problems of its own, has been helping Palestinian refugees in Gaza since 1949, a year after Israel's founding.
    Some 1.2 million people in the enclave are dependent on its assistance, and with no political solution to their plight in sight, the agency, Turner said, needs to move forward in a financially sustainable way.
    Turner said UNRWA's operational budget, in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East, is about $680 million, and it is running a deficit of $101 million.
    The organisation has cut international staff, frozen recruitment and is looking for other savings, he said.
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