At current rates it could take more than 100 years to complete essential building of homes, schools and health facilities in Gaza Strip unless the Israeli blockade is lifted, Oxfam International warned on Thursday as new figures show the amount of vital construction materials entering Gaza dropped last month.
Less than 0.25 percent of the truckloads of essential construction materials needed have entered Gaza in the past three months. Six months since the end of the conflict, the situation in Gaza is becoming increasingly desperate. Oxfam is calling for an urgent end to the blockade of Gaza, which has now been in place for nearly eight years.
Gaza needs more than 800,000 truckloads of construction materials to build homes, schools, health facilities and other infrastructure required after repeated conflicts and years of blockade, according to aid agencies on the ground.
Yet, in January only 579 such trucks entered Gaza. This is even less than the 795 trucks that entered the previous month.
Around 100,000 people - more than half of them children - are still living in shelters, temporary accommodation or with extended family after their homes were destroyed. Tens of thousands more families are living in badly damaged homes.