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Israel approves materials for damaged Gaza homes
A Palestinian official said over the weekend that Israel has approved the import of materials to rebuild 1,500 homes in the Gaza Strip, which were destroyed during Operation Protective Edge in summer 2014.
Naji Sarhan, Palestinian Authority (PA) Housing and Public Works deputy minister, told the Jerusalem Post that the approvals were “a positive indication for the future of the Gaza reconstruction process”. He added that Israel had given preliminary approval to a further 1,200 families to purchase building materials for reconstructing their homes.
According to the rebuilding mechanism, agreed between Israel and the PA after the 2014 conflictand overseen by the UN, Israel must approve the purchase and import of building materials to the Strip, over fears that they will be appropriated by Hamas to construct tunnels and other military infrastructure. Sarhan has accused Israel of using the tunnels “as a pretext to limit the entry of building materials”.
On Friday, Yussef al-Agha became the latest Hamas operative to have died in reconstructing the underground network of tunnels in Gaza. A Hamas statement named al-Agha after what it called a “resistance tunnel” collapsed in Khan Yunis.
Last month, Hamas said that 22 members of its armed wing died in 2016 “preparing equipment,” the vast majority reportedly in tunnel collapses.
Hamas is looking to rebuild the network of tunnels used to attack Israeli targets during Operation Protective Edge. Although Israel thought it had destroyed most of the tunnels, Hamas has admitted to rebuilding its underground capability in preparation for future attacks. Last year, Israeli forces uncovered two major tunnels which reached deep inside Israeli territory, burrowing underneath the Gaza border.
Egypt has also worked to destroy the tunnels beneath the Gaza border into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Cairo accuses Hamas of using the tunnels to smuggle weapons and arms into Sinai for use by the ISIS-affiliated Sinai Province terror group, which is waging an armed campaign against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s regime.