Qatar to build 1,000 Gaza housing units

A Qatari envoy on Tuesday announced plans to build 1,000 housing units in the blockaded Gaza Strip.

“The building of 1,000 housing units comes as part of a $1-billion donation towards the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip,” Mohamed al-Amadi, the head of a Qatari committee on Gaza reconstruction, told a press conference.

He said the donation was part of $5.4 billion pledged by international donors for rebuilding the devastated Gaza Strip following a 51-day Israeli offensive last summer.

Amadi said the construction materials needed for the project would be allowed through the strip’s Israeli-controlled border crossings.

Qatar signed a trilateral agreement with Egypt and Gaza in 2013 to fund housing and infrastructure projects in Gaza worth a total of $500 million.

Last November, Israeli authorities allowed Qatari-funded construction supplies to enter the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing.

The move came after Egypt sealed the Rafah border with Gaza following the ouster of elected President Mohamed Morsi by the army in mid-2013.

Images by MEMO photographer Mohammed Asad