BICOM

The United Nations (UN) Middle East envoy said yesterday that reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip following last summer’s conflict are accelerating.

In the wake of Operation Protective Edge, the international community and in particular Gulf states pledged huge amounts of money to repair the destruction in Gaza. However, reconstruction progress has so far been typically slow. Yesterday though, in an upbeat assessment, Nikolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process said, “I’m very happy to be able to report today that the reconstruction effort has visibly accelerated within the last two months.” However, Mladenov added that “We are very far from reaching the goal of restoring normal life to Gaza” and that faster reconstruction would require the Palestinian Authority (PA) to regain control of the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Hamas.

Soon after last summer’s conflict, Israel agreed to the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism which allows for materials to be brought into the Gaza Strip for reconstruction purposes. It is operated in partnership with the PA and is overseen by the UN, which is tasked with ensuring that materials are used only for civilian purposes.

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli body responsible for coordinating movement at the Gaza border crossings, said earlier this month that under the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism, almost 2 million tons of construction materials have entered Gaza.

In March this year, a group of European diplomats applauded Israel for “removing hurdles and assisting reconstruction.” However, they concluded that, “At the same time, reconstruction is still stuck because of the internal fights on the Palestinian side, Egyptian behaviour and failure to deliver funds pledged by the Arab states.” In particular, they said that “continued internal political squabbling between Fatah and Hamas are adversely affecting the humanitarian situation in Gaza.”

Meanwhile, since last summer’s conflict, it is thought that Hamas has been restocking its arsenal of rockets and rebuilding its network of tunnels aimed at attacking Israel.