Gazans struggle to rebuild houses amid severe coldness

In severe coldness, Kamal Awaja and his seven children clustered around the burning firewood, eyes stung by its smoke. Around them, four walls and a roof, but with no floor, windows or doors, were their house in making, full of hope but barely provides protection against the coldest winter in the last 10 years in the Gaza Strip. Awaja, 50 years old, still remembers his cozy house overlooking farmlands in Beit Lahiya town, which was demolished by Israeli bulldozers four years ago in a three-week military operation, leaving 1,400 Palestinians dead, including Awaja's son, Ibrahim. Since then, the family moved from tents to tents, to mud houses and other makeshift shelters. Although they never give up the hope of rebuilding their house, they simply don't have enough money. Even if the funds are available, the construction is subject to factors beyond Awaja's will. "Israel, Egypt, the (Palestinian) authorities and weather were all not on my side," he told Xinhua in a bitter smile. Last year, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) provided him with payment in installments to build a new house. In July 2012, Awaja got the first payment. He then settled his family in a nearby shack with plastic roof, demolished the expedient mud house, and started building a new one at the same site. "I was hoping that my house would be ready by November, as it becomes too cold then," Awaja muttered. "If I have all the money and materials, I would have built the house in two months." The UNRWA gives Awaja 260 U.S. dollars each time in every one to two months. Construction materials, mostly smuggled in from Egypt, were scarce in the markets, with their prices doubled due to Egyptian crackdown on smuggling following an attack which killed 16 Egyptian soldiers in Sinai in August 2012. Later, winds destroyed the shack, exposing their belongings to rain and snow. The family had to find shelter in the house that they are still building. "Look at my hands... Do they suggest those of a woman?" said Um Subhi, Awaja's wife, showing her dry and rough hands. Reconstruction projects were promised to residents in Gaza who had lost their houses in the Israeli offensive. The main project is funded by Qatar, but no work has started on the ground. Israel has eased the blockade imposed on Gaza since Hamas took over the territory in 2007, but Hamas officials said that Israel's recent gesture was far from enough for the mass reconstruction in Gaza. "I have been moving from a tent to another for four years," said Awaja, hoping to get the third payment soon to paint the house, install doors and windows, add the floor tiles, and make it a proper house like the previous one. "We want to make it a lifetime house," said Awaja. "We are tired of this situation."