By Palestine Chronicle Staff

Johannes Hahn, the Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations, along with 18 delegates, have arrived in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday 14 June 2016. The few-hour-visit will include holding meetings with UN officials as well as ministers in the national unity government.

The delegates opened a desalination water facility in the town of Dier Al-Balah that was funded by the European Union, an event that was attended by Mufid Alhassaynia, the Minister of Housing in the national unity government.

A new report, published by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor last week, revealed that Israel destroyed about €65 million worth of EU-funded projects since 2011.

Signing a new €10 million agreement to support the second phase of the #Gaza small scale #desalination plant 1/2 pic.twitter.com/N0nRAQjmkF

— Johannes Hahn (@JHahnEU) June 14, 2016

The report revealed that following the EU’s decision to label Israeli products produced in the West Bank settlements in 2015, “the number of EU-funded projects demolished or confiscated by Israel increased dramatically.”

The Gaza Strip has been living under Israeli siege for 10 years, estimating that it will be inhabitable by 2020, according to the United Nations. According to the Palestinian Water Authority, only 3% of Gaza’s water is fit for human consumption.

(Palestine Chronicle)