UN halts building projects in Gaza due to Israeli closure

"Some $93 million worth of projects are on hold because cement and other building supplies have run out," Ging said. The agency's construction projects employ 121,000 people, and their halt will deliver a further blow to Gaza's depressed economy, he said.

In the southern town of Rafah, the concrete skeletons of dozens of partly finished houses rise from the sand, part of a refugee camp hit hard by Israeli military operations before 2005 and later Palestinian infighting. Construction has been halted, forcing dozens of destitute families to crowd in with relatives.

Ahmed Ashour, 44, his wife, and seven children are living with his 83-year-old mother-in-law. His house in the Rafah camp was destroyed in an Israeli operation in 2003, and the UN relief agency was building him a new one.

"The house is supposed to be ready in March," he said. "They began the project, but it has been halted because the border has been closed." In the meantime, he has had to move from house to house seven times, he said. "Some charities donated furniture," Ashour said, adding, "There are plenty of people worse off."

About 1.4 million people are jammed into Gaza, a territory 25 miles long and 6 miles wide with no natural resources. It is hemmed in on two sides by Israel, one side by the Egyptian Sinai Desert, and the other by the Mediterranean Sea.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees and their descendants from the 1948-49 war that followed the creation of Israel live in shantytown camps run by the relief agency next to Gaza cities and towns.

. Poverty is the norm.

After Hamas won an election in January 2006 and formed a government, Israel and the West cut off funds and aid, charging Hamas is a terror group.

Now that Hamas has overrun Gaza, aid is being directed to the West Bank, where President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah is in control.

The Israelis are aware of the crisis. Shlomo Dror, spokesman for the Israeli Army unit that deals with Gaza issues, said some cement is being let in along with the emergency supplies, and other building materials would be added to the next shipment.