Haniyeh: Turkey to fund 20 new apartment buildings in Gaza Strip
In April, it was reported that only a quarter of the promised $3.5bn pledged to help rebuild Gaza after last summer's war between Hamas and Israel had been delivered.
By JPOST.COM STAFFPalestinians stand by the rubble of the home of Hamas Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza City(photo credit: REUTERS)
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Monday that Turkey has agreed to donate money to help rebuild the Gaza Strip, Jordan daily al-Ghad reported Sunday.Haniyeh, speaking at a Turkish-funded mass wedding, said that the money will be used to build 20 apartment buildings in the Strip, what Army Radio said will be 340 apartment units, though did not specify how much money was donated.According to a report by the World Bank published in Today's Zaman, Turkey had original pledged to give Gaza $200 million dollars, but had only given over $520,000 as of May 21, amounting to a minute 0.26 percent of their pledge.In April, it was reported that only a quarter of the promised $3.5bn pledged to help rebuild Gaza after last summer's war between Hamas and Israel had been delivered.The Association of International Development Agencies stated that only 26.8 percent ($945m) of the promised aid pledged by donors at a conference in Cairo six months ago had reached the coastal enclave, and the reconstruction effort to help rebuild the battered strip has barely just begun."The promising speeches at the donor conference have turned into empty words," said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam and one of report's signatories, according to al-Jazeera.Mohammad al-Amadi, the head of the Qatari Committee to Rebuild Gaza, said Saturday that Israel has approved all the Qatari-funded projects in the Gaza Strip and that "The reconstruction process is progressing very well as construction material is being shipped to Gaza every day without any obstacles."Qatar, one of Gaza's wealthiest and staunchest supporters, has pledged over $1 billion dollars to help rebuild Gaza, after three wars in the past six years have left major infrastructure installations destroyed and many Gazans homeless.Palestinian and United Nations officials said 130,000 houses had either been destroyed or damaged in the fighting.
