The assessment of damaged private housing was initially carried out in the frame of the EC “Damage Assessment and Reconstruction Management in the West Bank and Gaza in 2002”.

The information on damaged housing concerns damages due to Israeli military activities in the West Bank and Gaza.

The information is supplied by the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Public Works and Housing on governorate level.

The assessment concerns only damages inflicted on private housing, and reported to the Ministry of Public Works and Housing.

For this damage assessment “private housing” is defined as a private owned building used for residential use by the owner but including buildings with ground floor level may be used for commercial activities (e.g. shops) and the upper floor(s) for private residential use.

The following categories of houses are excluded from the damage assessment:
- Houses located in refugee camps or houses otherwise under responsibility of the UNWRA.
- Houses with an estimated rehabilitation cost below US$ 1,000
- Houses already repaired or where funds are made available for rehabilitation at the time of the damage assessment.

IMG have verified the information on the ownership of the damaged houses, and assessed the damages and estimation of repairing cost. In many cases IMG have also provided photo documentation.

The assessment of the housing sector is under continuously updating within the frame of the current EC Programme “IMG Technical Assistance and Monitoring of Reconstruction projects in the West Bank and Gaza.