U.N. adds to Gazan’s hardships, halts Gaza construction projects

Source: AP, 9-7-2007
JERUSALEM (AL-QUDS) - The U.N. relief agency halted all its building projects in Gaza, saying Monday that the shutdown of crossings into the coastal strip after the Hamas takeover has cut off its supply of construction materials.
The U.N. gives food aid to 80 percent of Gaza`s 1.4 million residents and its construction projects employ some 121,000 Palestinians in Gaza - vital jobs in an impoverished area with about 40 percent unemployment.
"Some $93 million worth of projects are on hold because cement and other building supplies have run out," John Ging, director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, said in a statement.
The repair of dilapidated and damaged shelters for 16,000 refugees, water and sanitation projects, and the construction of schools and health centers have all stopped, Ging said.
The agency has been warning of an impending humanitarian crisis ever since Hamas` bloody takeover of the impoverished strip a month ago prompted "Israel" and Egypt to shut down its crossings into Gaza.
Unless passages into Gaza resume full operations, Ging cautioned, "Gaza faces the prospect of a humanitarian and public health crisis."
"Israel" has cracked open its passages into the strip to allow in hundreds of truckloads of food aid and medicine. "Israeli" military spokesman Shlomo Dror said Monday that "Israel" also recently shipped cement and would add other building materials to the next batch.
"Israel" has sought to isolate Hamas and strengthen the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank. "Israeli" Prime Minister Ehud Olmert planned a meeting with Abbas next week - their second in less than a month.
(So called) ‘Moderate' Arab countries and the West have been pushing for renewed "Israeli"-Palestinian peacemaking since Gaza was overrun by Hamas. Abbas dismissed Hamas from government after the Gaza takeover and set up an emergency Cabinet of loyalists that has Western and moderate Arab backing.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to visit "Israel" and the West Bank next week as part of a Mideast tour, but it was not immediately clear whether she would be present at the Abbas-Olmert talks.
Miri Eisin, Olmert`s spokeswoman, had no details on precisely when or where the meeting with Abbas would take place. Abbas and Olmert last met June 25 at a summit with Egyptian and Jordanian leaders that was meant to show a united moderate front confronting Hamas.
On Thursday, envoys from the 22-member Arab League are to visit "Israel" for the first time to try to push forward an Arab peace initiative that would trade full Arab recognition of "Israel" for a full "Israeli" withdrawal from lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war, and the creation of a Palestinian state.
"Israel" has expressed interest in parts of the plan, but rejects clauses that demand a full "Israeli" withdrawal from the West Bank and imply the settling in "Israel" of Palestinian refugees and their descendants.