GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Homeless families in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday shut down UNRWA summer camps in protest over the agency's failure to reconstruct homes destroyed during the Second Intifada.

Gaza residents also closed UNRWA's emergency department, social services office and ration stores, said Atiyya Radwan, who heads a committee of families whose homes have been destroyed.

Over 40,000 families in Gaza have lost their homes since 2000, Radwan said, adding that they blamed the UN for failing to reconstruct the buildings.

He said the UN gave priority to families whose homes were destroyed during Israel's 3-week Operation Cast Lead offensive on Gaza, launched in December 2008.

But the international body neglected families who lost their homes during the Second Intifada, or uprising, Radwan said.