I/III. http://rt.com/news/184108-gaza-reconstruction-twenty-years/ Gaza reconstruction will take 20 years, says UN-backed authority Published time: August 31, 2014 18:24
A Palestinian returns to his house, which witnesses said was destroyed in an Israeli offensive, after a ceasefire was declared, in the east of Gaza City August 27, 2014. (Reuters/Suhaib Salem) A UN backed construction authority has said rebuilding Gaza's battered and neglected housing stock will take at least 20 years as thousands of houses were razed or suffered damage in Israel's Protective Edge operation. Shelter Cluster, an international organization involved in assessing post-conflict reconstruction, which is co-chaired by the UN refugee agency and the Red Cross, says that 17,000 houses were destroyed or severely damaged during the seven week war between Israel and Hamas. An additional 5,000 homes still needed work after previous wars, while Gaza with its 1.8 million people squeezed into 5046/km2 of land has a housing deficit of 75,000 houses. Palestinian officials have put the cost of rebuilding Gaza at $6 billion, but any reconstruction efforts will be hampered by a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt since Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007. Israel has severely restricted the import of concrete and other building materials into Gaza fearing that they could be used to reinforce bunkers and cross border attack tunnels, which Hamas uses for its rocket attacks on Israel. But in what might be a significant concession the Israeli defense establishment are expected to recommend to politicians that they should be generous in indirect negotiations with Hamas, while discussing conditions for a permanent ceasefire. A senior military source told Hareetz that it is in Israel's interest to avoid too much economic pressure on Gaza. *"If we can assist by expanding fishing grounds and easing restrictions on border crossings of people and goods into and from Israel, this will help maintain the quiet,"* the unnamed source said. At present Israel independently supervises goods that are moved in and out of Gaza without any international participation.But the source said that if effective independent supervision could be organized and managed then more cement and concrete could be allowed through to aid the rebuilding process as long as it isn't diverted to Hamas. Egypt, in its turn, does not plan to fully open its border crossing with Gaza at Rafah. Before the last Israeli Gaza war, the so-called Operation Protective Edge, Egypt was allowing a trickle of about 100-200 people a day but on some days the crossing was closed. Egypt may double the number of people it allows to cross but that will be it, meaning that how the reconstruction of Gaza progresses will depend largely on Israel. As well as the huge challenge of reconstruction, the Israeli defense establishment recommended that fishing rights be extended and guaranteed and that the salaries of 43,000 employees linked to the strip's Hamas government be transferred; earlier this year Israel froze the money. II/III. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/31/gaza-war-costs-israel-budget-cuts Israel estimates cost of Gaza conflict at £1.5bn Education sector likely to be hardest hit as Binyamin Netanyahu seeks 2% cut to government spending to offset cost of Gaza war Peter Beaumont <http://www.theguardian.com/profile/peterbeaumont> in Jerusalem The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian>, Sunday 31 August 2014 14.28 BST Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu is looking to reduce government spending by 2% this year. Photograph: Jim Hollander/EPA Israel <http://www.theguardian.com/world/israel> has been presented with a hefty bill for 50 days of war in Gaza <http://www.theguardian.com/world/gaza>, as the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu <http://www.theguardian.com/world/binyamin-netanyahu>, moved to slash government spending by 2% this year to offset the $2.52 bn (£1.51bn) cost of the conflict. With only the Israeli military and domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet exempt from the sharp spending reductions, the area to be hit hardest emerged as the Israeli education system, with critics - including members of Netanyahu's cabinet - predicting that the poorest Israelis will feel the brunt of the cuts. Among those protesting was the welfare minister, Meir Cohen, who insisted there was no more fat in his budget to trim. "From whom will we take? From those who have nothing to put in their children's sandwiches for school?" he complained on Israeli army radio. Amid estimates by some economic observers that the war may have cost Israel a decline of 0.5% in its growth in GDP, Netanyahu defended the stringent across-the-board cuts before a cabinet meeting in the country's south on Sunday, insisting: "Security comes first." The proposed emergency budget reductions, amounting to about $561m, will help fund a sharp hike in the budget of Israel's armed forces and Shin Bet amid estimates that the latest round of fighting in Gaza cost Israel $50m for each day of the war. The Israeli budget for this year - even before the war and the latest proposed cuts - had already heralded a bout of belt-tightening that had seen a fierce fight over spending cuts, later reversed, to the Israeli defence forces. On the Palestinian side experts have estimated that the bill for reconstruction after the conflict could be upwards of $6bn and take 20 years to accomplish under the current Israeli and Egyptian restrictions on imports of building materials into Gaza. The Israeli budget cuts come amid evidence that Israel's economy - which had already been slowing to a sluggish 1.7% growth in the second quarter of this year, including the key hi-tech sector - had been hard hit by the weeks of conflict, not least tourism. Netanyahu has also been facing demands to increase the scope of an already large compensation package for southern Israeli communities close to the Gaza Strip. Speaking ahead of the cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu insisted: "We are starting to fill in what is lacking in the defence budget, As we saw recently, defence comes before all else. "We will start to fill in what is missing in the defence establishment. This reflects our understanding of the priorities, with security coming before all else. We did great things, but this requires us to roll up our sleeves to enable the IDF, the Israel security agency [Shin Bet], and the security services to continue to defend Israel effectively." The new austerity programme - which had been anticipated - emerged amid continuing criticism by Israelis of Netanyahu and his government, whose approval has plummeted since a long-term cease fire with Hamas was agreed last week. The scale of the cuts have been dictated by the insistence of Netanyahu's finance minister, Yair Lapid, that he will not raise taxes to cover any shortfall. The disclosure of the scope and potential impact of the proposed cuts came as Israel announced on Sunday a land appropriation <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/01/us-criticises-israel-appropriation-land-settlements> in the occupied West Bank that an anti-settlement group termed the biggest in 30 years and a Palestinian official said would cause only more friction after the Gaza war. Four hundred hectares (988 acres) in the Etzion settlement bloc near Bethlehem were declared "state land, on the instructions of the political echelon" by the military-run civil administration. Israel Radio said the step was taken in response to the kidnapping and killing of three Jewish teenagers by Hamas militants in the area in June. The notice published by the military gave no reason for the decision. III. http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.613239 Israel's defense establishment recommends easing Gaza restrictions Defense establishment tells politicians that preventing social and economic meltdown in Gaza is in Israel's best interest. By Amos Harel <http://www.haaretz.com/misc/writers/amos-harel-1.285> | Aug. 31, 2014 | 9:41 AM Israel's defense establishment will recommend to politicians that they show generosity in indirect negotiations with Hamas when discussing the conditions for a permanent cease-fire, in order to forestall renewed hostilities at the end of September. A senior military source has told Haaretz that it is in Israel's interest to avoid intense social and economic pressure on Gaza. "If we can assist by expanding fishing grounds and easing restrictions on border crossings of people and goods into and from Israel, this will help maintain the quiet," the source said. The source said that these steps should be accompanied by effective supervisory mechanisms that will prevent renewed smuggling of military materiel into the Gaza Strip. At present, the temporary cease-fire agreement has no such provisions and Israel independently supervises goods that are moved into Gaza, without international participation. The defense establishment will demand that specific measures are taken to supervise construction projects financed and managed by international agencies, in order to prevent cement and concrete from being diverted to Hamas for rebuilding its tunnels and bunkers. Egypt does not intend to fully open its border crossing into Gaza at Rafah. Before Operation Protective Edge it permitted the crossing of 100 to 200 people a day, based on humanitarian considerations, but on some days the crossing was closed. Israel estimates that the numbers will be doubled, but not beyond that. Egypt is unwilling to allow the transfer of goods, as the Palestinians would like to see. In view of Egypt's attitude, reconstruction and improvement in the lives of Gaza's residents depends largely on Israel's attitude. The defense establishment marked the critical elements essential for Gaza's economy: the transfer of salaries to 43,000 employees associated with the Hamas government (Israel imposed procedural hardships on this transfer earlier this year), guaranteed fishing rights, easing of restrictions on the transfer of goods through the Kerem Shalom crossing and people through the Erez crossing, and implementation of massive reconstruction projects to repair the extensive damage caused by the hostilities. Updated estimates by Military Intelligence are that Hamas has fewer than 3,000 rockets left, including 100 with a range of over 40 kilometers. Only very few longer-range rockets remain. Locally produced long-range rockets caused little damage. During the fighting, Hamas fired 4,500 rockets. Another 3,000-3,500 rockets were destroyed by the IDF. Thirty-two attack tunnels were destroyed during the operation. The IDF continues to search for additional tunnels on the Gaza side, using intelligence methods. The Military Intelligence assessment is that if Hamas had additional cross-border tunnels these would have been used for an attack before the cease-fire set in, as retaliation for the assassination of some of its military commanders toward the end of the war. To date, the IDF has identified with certainty 600 of the 2,100 casualties in Gaza as members of terrorist organizations. The final numbers are expected to be larger, but there is no proof yet that 1,000 were killed, as stated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a press conference last week. Despite the extensive damage wrought by the war in Gaza, Military Intelligence sees no indications of an incipient popular rebellion brewing against Hamas rule. During the last week of fighting, Hamas publicly executed over 20 people accused of collaborating with Israel. Some of these had dared to publicly criticize Hamas during the war. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
