Palestinians on their way to Gaza: homeless, jobless, without a future

Hundreds of thousands of people have nowhere to return to, nowhere to sleep and try to start a life. Gaza is a place in ruins. Those who live there do so in the midst of all the deprivations: basic services, employment, hospitals, schools…

Ninety per cent of homes in the Gaza Strip were destroyed by the Israeli aggression, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) warned in a report released here today.

Hundreds of thousands of people have nowhere to go, the organisation warned in a statement at the end of a visit to the enclave by its director general, Amy Pope, and its humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, Muhannad Hadi. Palestinians in Gaza live in miserable conditions because access to basic necessities and services is almost non-existent, the text stressed. He stressed that IOM, in cooperation with UN and humanitarian partners, is working to increase assistance to the more than two million people living there.

‘The scale of destruction in Gaza is staggering. Families who have lost everything are facing the cold with no protection, no infrastructure or services, and no certainty about what tomorrow will bring,’ Pope stressed.

Gaza authorities warned this week that they need 240,000 mobile homes to shelter hundreds of thousands of families left homeless as a result of the Israeli aggression.

The Government Press Office in Gaza warned in a statement that 135,000 are urgently needed in the northern governorates alone. He also criticised Israeli actions to prevent the entry into the coastal enclave of these prefabricated dwellings and heavy vehicles, which are intended to begin rubble removal work.

The UN estimates that the reconstruction of the territory will take up to 15 years and cost more than 53 billion dollars.

The territory’s Ministry of Public Works and Housing recently estimated that 170,000 houses have been demolished and another 80,000 are unfit to live in. PL