100,000 in Gaza still homeless after war with Israel

Asma’ Jawabreh and Mohammad Atallah | Special for USA TODAY

GAZA CITY — Liala Kloob, her unemployed husband and their six children sleep on cots in the Abu Assi School in a Gaza Strip refugee camp.

A year ago, her husband worked as a tailor and they owned a house. But Israeli airstrikes destroyed their home and her husband's storefront during the 51-day war last summer with Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza.

"You cannot imagine life in a school with about a 100 other families," said Kloob, who depends on United Nations aid to survive. "The only available solution for my family is staying at the school. We have to stand in a line and wait our turn to get food, water or even to go to the bathroom."

Eight months after the war's end, Kloob is among 100,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who are still homeless, the Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA) said in a report this month.

Their plight reflects a painfully slow post-war reconstruction effort hampered by ongoing economic embargoes of the territory by Israel and Egypt, promised aid from donor nations failing to arrive and political conflicts among the Palestinians.

"No one pays any attention to us," said Alaa Abu-Lahyah, who lost his home and seven relatives, including four young children, in the summer war. "We just keep hearing repeatedly about reconstruction funds, but we don't notice any practical and realistic steps toward reconstruction."

The war erupted after three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and killed in June by two men with links to Hamas. That prompted an Israeli crackdown in Gaza, from where Hamas fired rockets at Israel. Israel responded with airstrikes and then a ground offensive to destroy the rockets and tunnels Hamas used to smuggle in arms and send fighters into Israel.

The United States and Israel label Hamas as a terrorist organization.

During the seven-week conflict, nearly 2,200 Palestinians died, roughly 70% of them civilians, according to the United Nations; 71 Israelis died, five of them civilians.

The U.N. estimates that 178,000 homes were damaged or destroyed in Gaza's tiny and teeming enclave of 1.8 million people.

The war wrecked hundreds of factories and businesses. Unemployment in Gaza now stands at almost 45%, according to Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights, a Switzerland-based organization.

Political disagreements between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority that controls the West Bank have hampered reconstruction despite last year's agreement by the groups to share power in the West Bank and Gaza, the AIDA report says.

Hamas is trying to rebuild Gaza, and homelessness is at the top of its agenda, Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan said.

"From the first day of the war until now, Hamas has tried to support the homeless by offering relief and financial aid," he said. "Hamas offers tents, barracks and compensation for victims who lost their houses. But some of them still live in schools."

Rawdan said Hamas is spending around $10 million on rebuilding Gaza. Turkey, Qatar and other countries have also sent aid. Still, of $3.5 billion pledged by donors, only about a quarter has been released, AIDA's report said.

Some Gulf nations say their promised donations have been hampered by falling oil prices. The U.S. and other Western powers refuse to deliver aid to Hamas unless it renounces violence.

Rawdan also said that Gazans can't rebuild because of Israeli restrictions on bringing construction materials into the territory.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said Egypt's blockade of Gaza is serving its purpose. "The reconstruction of Gaza is jeopardized by Hamas," Nahshon said. "Building materials are diverted from their original purpose to the reconstruction of tunnels and bunkers."

Hamas doesn't really care about the civilians in Gaza, he added: "Hamas uses the civilian population cynically, just as it has done for many years."

In the meantime, Gazans say living conditions are unbearable.

"We don't receive any financial or material help from anyone," said Alaa Abu-Lahyah of Gaza City. She said the lack of "everything" — housing, electricity, water — has left life a continuing struggle. "We cannot enjoy anything, or even smile in these miserable living conditions, especially the kids. They cannot play or learn in all of this."

Jawabreh reported from Berlin.