UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process Nickolay Mladenov announced in a Feb. 15 statement that the Palestinians and Israelis have reached an agreement on reviewing the reconstruction plan of the Gaza Strip in place since 2014, so as to effectively repair the damage caused by the Israeli war on Gaza the same year.

Miladinov’s statement followed a meeting in Ramallah on Feb. 14 with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai to discuss the possibility of alleviating Israeli restrictions on Gaza and speeding up the reconstruction process.

“Today — three years into the reconstruction plan — only 60% of buildings have been reconstructed as Israel does not allow most building materials into the Gaza Strip. This has caused the construction process to break down, harming the Palestinian companies and inflicting major losses of millions of dollars on the economy,” Mohammed Abu Jiab, the editor-in-chief at Al-Eqtesadia newspaper in Gaza, told Al-Monitor.

Egypt had organized the Cairo Conference on Palestine – Reconstructing Gaza following the destruction of the coastal strip by the Israeli attacks in the summer of 2014, and $5 billion was pledged to the Palestinians, of which $3.5 billion was allocated for rebuilding the Gaza Strip. Of 53 countries and entities participating, only 28 were fully committed to their pledges, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United States, the European Union and Turkey.