Lack of supplies halts U.N. construction in Gaza

'A disaster waiting to happen'
Businessman Ala Araj, an adviser to deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, said there was enough blame to go around. “I mostly blame Israel for closing the borders completely or partially,” he said, adding he also faulted Palestinian militants for attacking the crossings. “Palestinians must avoid hitting sensitive places like borders, which offers a pretext to Israel to close them,” he said.

Sari Bashi of Gisha, a human rights group, called the border closing “collective punishment.” She said, “The rationale is to pressure Hamas ... but now it’s a quick death blow because the economy is unraveling very quickly.”

Besides the schools and homes, Ging said, the U.N. is working on an emergency waste project in northern Gaza — shoring up a huge cesspool complex where a collapse last March killed five people in a stinking wave of sewage. An even larger pool is in danger of collapsing now.

That project, Ging said, also has been halted.

“It’s a disaster waiting to happen,” he said. “If that goes the same way as the smaller one, it will be a bigger catastrophe.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office said Monday he will meet Abbas again next week. The two men met last month in Egypt, where Olmert pledged to release 250 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to visit Israel and the West Bank next week, but it was not immediately clear whether she would take part in the Abbas-Olmert talks.

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