JERUSALEM (AP) – A deal reached on war-battered Gaza’s reconstruction is set to be implemented in the coming months, with the amount of building materials entering the territory expected to quadruple, a U.N. official said Wednesday, in the first details of the agreement to emerge.
James Rawley, a U.N. Mideast envoy, said that under a mechanism agreed to by the Palestinians, Israel and the U.N., up to 800 truckloads of construction materials will enter Gaza per day – a jump from the 200 or so trucks that enter now, he said.
“This facilitates recovery and reconstruction of Gaza and we’re hoping that this step in the right direction will set the stage for an even more meaningful opening of the crossings,” Rawley, the deputy U.N. envoy for the Mideast peace process, told The Associated Press.
The details of the deal are a crucial part of Gaza’s rebuilding after the 50-day war this summer that pulverized parts of the territory, flattening entire neighborhoods and reducing houses to rubble. The agreement comes ahead of a donor conference in Egypt next month, where international benefactors will be looking for guarantees that their pledges materialize into actual construction. Palestinian officials estimate rebuilding Gaza could cost $6 billion.
The U.N. says some 18,000 homes were destroyed or severely damaged in the fighting.