(JNS.org) A new report by a group of international aid organizations criticized donors for failing to follow through on pledges for the rebuilding of Gaza after last summer’s war there. The Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA), an umbrella group of 46 NGOs, said in its report that only 26.8 percent of the $5.4 billion pledged to Gaza by international donors at a conference in Cairo last October has been delivered so far. “The promising speeches at the donor conference have turned into empty words,” said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International. Israel, meanwhile, has taken a number of steps to ease restrictions on Gaza – recently allowing Gazans to export hundreds of tons of produce into Israel for the first time in nearly a decade, and decreasing restrictions on imports of construction materials into Gaza.