JERUSALEM, August 12, 2011 (WAFA) - Saudi Arabia through the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) will finance refugee housing in Rafah, Gaza, to the tune of $71.5 million, said a press release by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) published Wednesday.

An agreement to this effect has been signed in Riyadh by Youssef Al Bassam, vice-chairman and managing director of the SFD, and Filippo Grandi, commissioner-general of UNRWA.

The Rafah housing project, which began in 2005 but has been halted for over three years by the Israeli blockade, will be restarted following the announcement in July of a partial lifting of the blockade to allow a number of UNRWA housing and school projects to go ahead.

The pledge of $ 71.5 million will cover completion of Phase 1 of the project, which is approximately one-quarter complete, and embarkation on a new Phase 2. Overall the project will comprise a minimum of 1,500 houses and associated facilities including schools, health and social service facilities, roads, sewage and electricity.

“Hundreds of refugee families who had their homes destroyed and who have been waiting years for new homes will be delighted at this development,” said Grandi.

“Many of them had been forced to live for years in deplorable conditions in full sight of their partly finished houses. An end to this dreadful situation is now at hand and we shall press ahead with implementation as fast as the limited crossings facilities for the importation of building materials from Israel into Gaza allow.”

The Dutch government has also made a donation of over $6m in response to UNRWA’s 2011 emergency appeal for the occupied Palestinian territory, according to an August 8 UNRWA press release.

The contribution of $6.18m will go towards supporting UNRWA’s emergency work in the West Bank and Gaza, which aims to mitigate the effects on refugees of the deteriorating political, socio-economic and security situation there, it said.

This year’s emergency contribution comes on top of funding for the re-housing of refugees in southern Gaza, as well as a donation of $18.6m in support of UNRWA’s main programs: education, health, relief, infrastructure, and microfinance.

The Dutch government was the Agency’s sixth biggest donor last year, with funds going to support the Agency’s main programs as well as human rights education in Gaza, music teaching in Jordan, and legal aid for Palestine refugees in Lebanon.

M.A.