Haneyya launches first stage in project to rebuild war-torn Gaza

[ 18/01/2011 - 06:22 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haneyya announced Tuesday his government will launch the first stage in a project to completely reconstruct the war-torn Gaza Strip.

Haneyya laid the foundation stone before Gaza ministers, government representatives, and other national figures near a destroyed home on Shahid Khalid Jumaa Street in Beit Lahia, a symbolic target for an onslaught of Israeli military operations in the war two years ago.

The project, which will include works on 1,000 homes, is too huge for even the government to handle itself, Haneyya said. Responsibility and commitment triggered the government to do all it could to take the first step, he said.

The Palestinian premier said the government is making serious efforts to jump the political hurdles regarding the development project. He said funds allocated for it were intercepted in a ring of political extortion.

Assuring that the project was launched to replace social security for homeowners and for the Palestinians altogether, Haneyya said the ruined homes will be built in original locations and will be fully reconstructed in the second stage, The government earlier paid $50 million to homeowners affected by the war.

A national project

The project was mapped out by the Ministry of Public Works and Housing and competent authorities in partnership with organizations and trade unions in an effort to include the whole community in a national project within the regional plan of the Gaza Strip.

"That comes n the framework of the government slogan, 'a hand builds, a hand resists', so the people will know resistance is not a loss, but is strong and successful. The resistance fighter upholds the homeland, and the citizen bears the consequences of the resistance, and the government assumes the responsibility of rebuilding," the Palestinian premier said.

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