As reported by the New York Times today Israel is not allowing building materials to enter Gaza to begin the reconstruction. From the article:
Peter Lerner, the spokesman for the Defense Ministry’s coordination
office for Gaza, said that while Israel was facilitating all
humanitarian work, including allowing in cable to fix the electrical
grid, it would not consider reopening the crossings fully for
commercial use, and any reconstruction projects would need to be
approved individually.
office for Gaza, said that while Israel was facilitating all
humanitarian work, including allowing in cable to fix the electrical
grid, it would not consider reopening the crossings fully for
commercial use, and any reconstruction projects would need to be
approved individually.
Approving projects individually means dealing with 4,000 destroyed homes and 17,000 damaged homes one by one. And of course this is being determined by the country who destroyed the houses in the first place. Sounds like occupation to me. This is just a part of the general blockade of Gaza that prevents the free flow of people, medicine, food, electricity, fuel or, of course, building materials.
Please think of this the next time you hear someone say Israel withdrew from Gaza in the interest of peace and all they received back were rockets. (Adam Horowitz)
