Hamas says the area, known as “Azbat Beit Hanoun," is government-owned land.
An official named Dr. Yousef Al-Kafarne said that the Land Authority also prevented UNRWA from building and repairing there. UNRWA did not issue any press release about this matter.
After some complaints and the intervention of some unnamed “Palestinian factions,” the Hamas Land Authority allowed partially destroyed houses to be rebuilt or renovated.
But completely destroyed houses are forbidden from being rebuilt.
You may recall a few months ago some left-wing NGOs would say that no Gaza homes have been rebuilt from scratch, blaming Israel - even though Israel was allowing tons of construction material to enter and Hamas was rebuilding its terror infrastructure unhindered. A cash shortage from donors as well as Gaza bureaucracy were also to blame for the slowness of rebuilding.
Now we see that Hamas has been actively opposed to rebuilding homes.
And those NGOs are silent.
(h/t Ibn Boutros)