Allow construction materials into Gaza Strip

Nearly two years after the Operation Protective Edge (the military operation launched by Israel on July 8 2014 in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip), none of the 12,000 homes destroyed in Gaza have been rebuilt due to the ongoing Israeli blockade. The World Bank warns that the economy of Gaza is on the verge of collapse. Overall unemployment rate now stands at 43 percent — the highest in the world. Sixty-eight percent of Gazans aged between 20 and 24 are unemployed. Two-thirds of Gaza's 1.8 million residents are now recipients of UN aid in one form or the other.

Palestinian people have survived a very dreadful winter in the different parts of the Gaza Strip, simply because they don't have proper housing. Unless there is more international pressure on Israel to allow construction materials into the Gaza Strip, the situation will not improve.

Ted Rudow III, MA
CA, USA