The Israeli military authorities on Monday allowed building supplies to start flowing into Gaza again, lifting a suspension that had blocked work for more than a month on thousands of houses destroyed in the 2014 summer war.
Israel had suspended deliveries on April 4 after accusing Emad al-Baz, an official in Gaza’s economic ministry, of diverting the supplies away from the work they were earmarked for: rebuilding private citizens’ homes. Other projects, like those overseen by the United Nations, were not affected by the suspension.
About 90 truckloads of cement were expected to cross into Gaza on Monday, according to the office of the special coordinator for the peace process. That is around the average amount that had entered daily before the suspension, according to figures provided by the office.
The suspension halted work on 5,095 houses and apartments, out of about 17,800 that were made uninhabitable during the war, which killed more than 2,100 Palestinians and 70 Israelis.
About 4,065 damaged or destroyed homes have been rebuilt, according to United Nations figures.
The plodding pace of reconstruction for the most severely damaged houses has become a pressing matter for Palestinians. Many of the poorest displaced families languish in trailers and shacks, waiting to rebuild, and thousands of others are crammed into rental apartments.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/24/world/middleeast/israel-allows-building-supplies-to-enter-gaza-again.html