Homeless Gazans in endless wait
With much of Gaza in ruins, reconstruction cannot come soon enough for thousands of homeless like Mohammed al-Najjar, a once-proud house owner whose family now huddles in a portable cabin.
A new UN-brokered deal has set the stage for private companies to help rebuild after a seven-week conflict that left 100,000 people with nowhere to live.
Until now Israel's eight-year blockade of Gaza has meant that few building materials are flowing into the Palestinian territory, making reconstruction a near-impossible task.
"This so-called temporary arrangement is beginning to look permanent," 60-year-old Najjar sighed.
"I'm scared that the blockade will never be lifted, and the Israelis won't let any construction material in," he said after fighting which killed more than 2,140 Palestinians and 73 on the Israeli side.
His new abode in Khuzaa near the southern city of Khan Yunis is essentially just a portacabin with two rooms, a bathroom and a kitchenette where he lives with at least six relatives.Although it is a small space, they are luckier than many to have somewhere to call their own, with most of the homeless now in cramped UN schools and shelters.
About 18,000 homes were destroyed or severely damaged in the fighting in July and August.
In total, an estimated five percent of the territory's entire housing stock was left uninhabitable, according to UN figures.
Israel's blockade on Gaza, in place since 2006, includes a ban on most construction materials including steel, cement and concrete for they could be used to build fortifications or tunnels.
"If the restrictions on (importing) building materials do not change, we will need 10 years to rebuild Gaza," said Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesman for the UN's Palestinian refugee agency.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel agreed to ease import restrictions on building materials, but so far there has been little sign of change, Palestinian officials say.
Suheila Mohammedin, her husband and 45 of their children and grand-children live in a tent pitched on the ruins of their home in the battered Shejaiya district in eastern Gaza City.
"It took us 10 years to build our home, and our children will never get to use it," she said, staring at the rubble of her former house.
"I might die without seeing it rebuilt."
Yet even if the blockade is totally lifted, it will take at least five years and $7.8 billion to rebuild Gaza, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction.
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