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OXFAM warned today that the rebuilding of homes, schools and hospitals in Gaza could take more than a century to complete unless the Israeli blockade is lifted.
Gaza needs more than 800,000 lorryloads of building materials to fix infrastructure damaged in the 2014 invasion byIsrael, yet less than 0.25 per cent of the materials needed have entered Gaza in the last three months, the aid agency said.
In 50 days of conflict in July and August more than 2,100 Palestinians and 73 Israelis were killed and the Israeli onslaught left swathes of ruins in the enclave.
Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza after Hamas took power having won elections in 2006.
Both Egypt and Israel maintain tight controls on the movement of goods and people in and out of the territory.
The longer the blockade continues, the more lives will be at risk, said Oxfam regional director Catherine Essoyan.
“Families have been living in homes without roofs, walls or windows for the past six months.
Many have just six hours of electricity a day and are without running water,” she said.
About 100,000 people — more than half of them children — are living in shelters or temporary accommodation because their homes have been destroyed.
Thousands more are living in damaged buildings, with only plastic sheeting to keep out the rain.
Little of the £3.5 billion pledged for Gaza’s reconstruction at a conference of international donors at Cairo in October has reached the territory.
Last month a lack of international funding forced the UN Relief and Works Agency to suspend payments to tens of thousands of Palestinians.
Meanwhile, as Oxfam tried to attract support for ending the blockade, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was picking a fight with the US.
With an election in the offing, Mr Netanyahu is intent on displaying independence from the Obama administration, which he can’t get on with.
But a visit to the US at the invitation of Republican House Speaker John Boehner has gone further than Mr Netanyahu expected.
He has been refused a discussion with Barack Obama, and US National Security Adviser Susan Rice said his visit to the US was “destructive to the fabric of the relationship.”
