Corruption hampers effort to rebuild Gaza after summer conflict

Coupon plan fails to stop black market in cement, while too few materials are making it across border into strip

Four months after the Gaza conflict, a Palestinian youth looks at a scene of devastation. Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images

Peter Beaumont in Gaza-Thursday 25 December 2014

The reconstruction of Gaza after this summer’s 50-day war with Israel is moving at a glacial pace with only a tiny amount of the promised rebuilding materials so far delivered.

Amid mounting criticism of the pace of the rebuilding effort, the Guardian has established that a controversial UN-designed mechanism to control the supply of building materials – and prevent them falling into the hands of the militant group Hamas – has been widely corrupted.
Corruption Hampers Effort to Rebuild Gaza After Summer Conflict by Thavam Ratna