Situation Overview
Two years after the end of Operation Cast Lead people living in the Gaza Strip continue to suffer unnecessarily. Plans to reconstruct housing damaged or demolished as a result of the conflict remain largely stagnant. Housing needs continue to increase day by day putting pressure on already overburdened coping mechanisms and structures. In addition to the significant housing needs prior to the last war, and the caseload resulting from Cast Lead, over 500 additional shelters have also been damaged or destroyed by Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip in the last two years; total shelter needs, including for natural population growth, are now estimated to be almost 100,000 units. The shelter sector estimates that 20% or 20,000 families of this total are in an extra vulnerable position, including some 120,000 women, men, boys and girls with particularly acute protection concerns. Another 20,000 individuals are estimated to still be displaced within the Gaza Strip.
Lack of access to raw building materials, as a result of the Israeli and Egyptian blockade, remains the major reason for the chronic lack of progress in reconstruction in Gaza. Two years after the end of Cast Lead only 875 of the 2,796 major damaged homes have been repaired and just 6 houses of the 3,487 totally demolished homes have been rebuilt.