$5.4 billion pledged for Gaza reconstruction

An international donors' conference convened in Cairo on Sunday and promised Palestinians billions of dollars in a bid to help rebuild the Gaza Strip following last summer's deadly conflict between Hamas and Israel.

"The participants pledged approximately $5.4 billion," announced Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende in a news conference at the end of the conference. The amount exceeded the $4 billion that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said was necessary cover the costs of reconstruction.

The most recent round of fighting between Israel and Hamas lasted for 50 days and left over 2,000 dead, the majority of them Palestinian civilians. Over 100,000 Gazans remain homeless.

Brende said that donors had "committed themselves to start dispersing their assistance as soon as possible in order to bring about rapid improvements to the daily lives of Palestinians."

But even with billions of dollars pledged, it's unlikely that Gazans will see the full extent of that promised money translate into immediate and actual reconstruction on the ground. An economic blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt following Hamas' takeover in 2007 hinders the importation of construction materials.

Israel defends the blockade by saying that such materials are used by the Islamist group to construct military-purposed bunkers and tunnels.

But Palestinians decry the blockade as collective punishment, and international aid organizations warn that no matter how much money is raised, the continued restriction of imports and suppression of exports will hamper any attempt at rebuilding the Gaza Strip.