Ankara, Sep 7 (IANS): The Turkish government will begin rebuilding nine mosques that were devastated during a summer 2014 operation by Israel, the media reported on Monday.

The procedure for full confirmation of the projects that will be carried out by the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) was completed last week, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

The Diyanet will supervise rebuilding efforts under the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism (GRM), a temporary agreement between the Palestinian Authority and Israel that was intended to facilitate the import of essential construction materials into the territory following the cease-fire.

Accordingly, nine mosques will be rebuilt: Muslim Mosque, Safa Mosque, Hamza Mosque, Zuhair Mosque, Hassan al-Bana Mosque, Badr Mosque, al-Bukhari Mosque, Sultan Abdul Hamid Mosque and al-Tawheed Mosque.

Meanwhile, a project for the construction of the Khanyonis Slaughterhouse in Gaza by the Prime Ministry’s Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) has also recently been fully confirmed by the GRM.

A recent report published by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) warned that the Gaza Strip could become “uninhabitable” by 2020 if current economic trends persist.

According to UNCTAD, the severe crises in Gaza related to water and electricity, as well as the destruction of vital infrastructure during the military operations in July and August 2014. For example, it found that Gaza’s 1.8 million inhabitants rely on coastal aquifers as their main source of freshwater, yet 95 percent of this water is not safe to drink.