GAZA, Aug 9, (KUNA): Kuwait’s Al-Rahma International Charity (AIC) embarked here Monday upon implementing the first project of its kind, funded by Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) for rebuilding 100 houses that were razed during the Israel’s war on the coastal enclave late 2008.
Chief of Al-Rahma’s bureau in Gaza Kamal Meslih told KUNA here today that implementing the $64 million project would be through staged paying of sums of money to the beneficiary party in what make it abides by finalizing every construction stage separately in order to get the money due for the project.
Meslih pointed out that the minimal floor space would be 90 square metres, estimating that the average cost of house would be $35,000.

He also made clear that this sum of money is sufficient for building a self-contained well-equipped house, addding that, “AIC insisted upon building on the same land on which the demolished house was standing in order to ensure the return of citizens to their territories and houses and to thwart the schemes of Israeli occupation aiming at depopulating the border areas from the Palestinians.” He said that this project — which is carried out in cooperation with the Palestinian Housing Council and under the supervision of the dismissed Palestinian Ministry of Public Works — would last for a whole year.
Owner of the demolished house would get a priority in the project if there is a martyr or more among his family members, according to Meslih.

“The remarkable availability of building materials at reasonable prices in the Gaza prompted the AIC and the IDB to implement this project which would be the first of its kind since the end of war on the strip,” he said, pointing out that AIC would carry out a lot of similar projects in the coming period.
He also affirmed that AIC attaches special importance to the file of reconstructing the strip and that this was represented in funding and executing two projects for reconsolidating and rehabilitating the buildings partially afflicted from the Israeli war.
Meslih expected for the project to have a extensive positive effect on the coastal enclave and to motivate a lot of international institutions, especially the Arab and Islamic ones to finance similar projects, under the increasing suffering of those afflicted and displaced as a result of war who are estimated at dozens of thousands.