Alwaght - Two months after donors pledged $5.4 billion to help rebuild Gaza after Israeli regime offensive of Gaza strip, U.N. and other officials say barely 2 percent of the money has been transferred, according to Reuters .
The conference in Cairo had been hailed as a success, with Qatar promising $1 billion, Saudi $500 million, Turkey $200 million, $200United Arab Emirates and western countries a combined $780 million in various forms of assistance .
Half was expected to go to rebuilding houses and infrastructure in Gaza destroyed during seven weeks of Zionists' indiscriminate bombardment, and the rest to support the Palestinian budget .
More than 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children during the 51-day invasion of the Gaza strip were killed. An invasion in which Over 11,100, including 3,374 children, 2,088 women, and 410 elderly people were injured, the vast majority of them Hamas members or their families. 17,200 Gazan homes were totally destroyed or severely damaged, and 37,650 homes suffered damage. At least 520,000 Gazans (approximately 30% of its population) have been displaced.
But of the total, only $100 million or so has been received, according to U.N. and other officials.
"We have received funding and pledges of approximately $100 million for shelter and repair," said Robert Turner, director of operations for the U.N.'s Relief and Works Agency in Gaza .
"That money will be largely finished in January 2015. We have a shortfall (for shelter and homes) of $620 million and we are going to run out right in the hardest part of winter ."
Details of donor commitments are often hard to pin down as the headline figure frequently includes money set aside earlier but not yet paid out .
"The Arab countries haven't paid anything until now," Mufeed al-Hasayna, the Palestinian housing minister, said this month. "The Europeans just a few millions, maybe something from the Swedes ."
It was not clear what happened to promises of $200 million from each of Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. In part, officials said, the problem is that it always takes time for donors to follow through on their commitments .
The money was supposed to go to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which planned to resume responsibility in Gaza and administer the money. That has not yet happened .
