The main UN aid agency in the Gaza Strip has said a lack of international funding had forced it to suspend payments to tens of thousands of Palestinians for repairs to homes damaged in last summer's war with Israel.
Robert Turner, Gaza director of operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said they received only £88.8m of the £474m pledged by donors.
So far, he said, UNRWA has provided more than $77m (£51m) to 66,000 families to repair their homes or find temporary alternatives, but now due to a lack of funds the agency "has been forced to suspend its cash assistance programme".
A man draped in a Palestinian flag stands next to burning tyres outside the headquarters of the United Nations Special Coordinator in Gaza City during a protest against the decision by the main UN aid agency to suspend payments to tens of thousands of Palestinians for repairs to their homes damaged in last summer's warMohammed Salem/ReutersPalestinians attack the headquarters of the United Nations Special Coordinator in GazaMohammed Salem/Reuters
Little of the total $5.4bn pledged for Gaza's reconstruction at a Cairo conference of international donors last October has reached the territory, and thousands of Palestinians have been sheltering in tents near destroyed homes.
Thousands more have been living in damaged buildings, using plastic sheeting to try to keep out the rain. Around 20,000 displaced are still being housed in UN-run schools.
Palestinians attend Friday prayers near the ruins of houses that witnesses said were destroyed or damaged by Israeli shelling during a 50-day war last summer, in the Shejaia neighbourhood east of Gaza City, on 23 January, 2015Suhaib Salem/ReutersManar Al-Shinbari, 15, who lost both her legs in what medics said was Israeli shelling at a UN-run school where she was taking refuge, uses her walker near the ruins of her house in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, on 13 January, 2015. Manar's mother and three of her brothers were killed in the same incidentMohammed Salem/ReutersA Palestinian boy looks out through a plastic sheet covering part of his family's damaged house on a rainy day in the village of Johar a-Deek near the central Gaza Strip, on 9 January, 2015Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/ReutersA Palestinian woman heats water on a fire outside her house at Beach Refugee Camp in Gaza City on 9 January, 2015Mohammed Salem/ReutersA Palestinian woman washes clothes at her damaged house in the east of Gaza City, on 8 January, 2015Mohammed Salem/ReutersPalestinians warm themselves by a fire in a makeshift shelter outside their destroyed house on a stormy day in the east of Gaza City, on 8 January, 2015Mohammed Salem/ReutersPalestinian children look out through holes in a sheet at their family's house on a stormy day in the east of Gaza City, on 8 January, 2015Mohammed Salem/ReutersPalestinian children look out through a hole covered with a blanket in their house in the east of Gaza City, on January 7, 2015Suhaib Salem/ReutersPalestinian boys ride a horse cart past the ruins of houses in the east of Gaza City, on 4 January, 2015Suhaib Salem/ReutersA Palestinian boy looks out through a hole in his family's house in the east of Gaza City, on 4 January, 2015Suhaib Salem/ReutersPalestinians warm themselves by a fire near the ruins of houses in the east of Gaza City, on 1 December, 2014Mohammed Salem/ReutersPalestinians take cover from the rain under the rubble of their house in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, on 23 November, 2014Mohammed Salem/ReutersPalestinians warm themselves by a fire outside their destroyed house, on a rainy day in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, on 23 November, 2014Mohammed Salem/ReutersPalestinian children take cover from the rain as they stand atop the ruins of a house in the east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, on 4 November, 2014Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/ReutersPalestinian school children ride a motorcycle rickshaw past the ruins of houses on a rainy day in the east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, on 4 November, 2014Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/ReutersPalestinians take cover from the rain inside a makeshift shelter in the east of Gaza City on 19 October, 2014Mohammed Salem/ReutersA Palestinian boy rides a bicycle past the ruins of houses that witnesses said were destroyed during a seven-week Israeli offensive, on a rainy day in the east of Gaza City, on 19 October, 2014Mohammed Salem/ReutersA motorcyclist rides along a road between ruins of houses, which witnesses said were damaged or destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip on 7 September, 2014Mohammed Salem/Reuters
Israel fought Hamas last summer to halt rocket fire from Gaza. During the fighting, Israel launched thousands of air strikes and artillery attacks, while Gaza militants fired thousands of rockets and mortar rounds. More than 2,200 Palestinians were killed, according to UN figures, and 72 people on the Israeli side.
