Palestine

Hamas leader slams Abbas government over Gaza reconstruction

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Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh says the Palestinian unity government has failed to meet its commitment to rebuild the blockaded and war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

Speaking late on Monday, Haniyeh accused the government of failing “to keep its commitments by not carrying out reconstruction.”

Haniyeh also strongly criticized the government for acting selectively in a manner that is “harmful” to Gaza.

“Unfortunately, the government has not managed to prove it is the government of the entire Palestinian people,” the senior Hamas official added.
The rival groups Hamas and Fatah took a major step to form a national unity government by hammering out a deal on new cabinet ministers in June. The Palestinian unity government operates from the the Israeli-occupied West Bank under President Mahmoud Abbas.

This is while senior Palestinian officials say international pledged donors have so far failed to deliver on their promises of financial assistance to the war-torn Palestinian coastal enclave in the wake of Israel’s 50-day onslaught on the besieged territory last summer.

Also on December 22, Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa said that “not even one penny” has been received from major pledged donors such as Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, which had promised USD 2.7 billion at a conference in the Egyptian capital of Cairo in October to help with the reconstruction of Gaza.

The latest Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which started on July 8, ended on August 26 with a truce that took effect after indirect negotiations in Cairo. The onslaught killed at least 2,140 Palestinians and injured thousands of others.

The Popular Committee for Monitoring the Reconstruction of the Gaza Strip said on November 15 that it will take at least twenty years to rebuild Gaza.

It is estimated that as many as 400 trucks, delivering building materials from concrete to machinery, are needed every day for the next six months for the reconstruction process. However, only around 75 trucks have made deliveries so far.

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