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UN stops cement supplies for 70 factories in Gaza

December 30, 2015 at 10:16 am

Director of the Union of the Construction Factories in Gaza Farid Zaqout said on Tuesday that the United Nations Office for the Project Services (UNOPS) had stopped cement supplies to 70 factories across the Gaza Strip, Anadolu reported.

“Without a pre-caution, the UNOPS has stopped cement supplies this week for 70 factories for construction materials out of 149, which are subject to the international monitoring mechanism,” Zaqout said.

He noted that there is communication with UNOPS regarding the reason behind the move, adding that he hopes the organisation will cancel its “disastrous” decision.

Zaqout said that this decision would negatively affect thousands of workers, as well as stop the cycle of the reconstruction of Gaza, stressing that none of the factories have violated the mechanism terms accepted by the Israeli authorities.

The mechanism is a monitoring system which permits building materials to enter the blockaded enclave. Israeli restrictions under the blockade usually prevent so-called “dual use” materials from entering Gaza. These include building supplies that they believe can be used by militants to build tunnels and weapons.

The recent war in Gaza left 12,000 residential units completely destroyed and 160,000 partially destroyed.