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The Palestinian government and the United Nations on Tuesday called for international donors to present $550 million in aid to hundreds of thousands who need help in Gaza. The appeal comes only two weeks after Hamas and Israel ended 50 days of brutal violence, in a war which caused the deaths of over 2,100 people. The donors’ conference will be held in Cairo in a month.
“The scope of damage and devastation is unprecedented in the Gaza Strip. The crisis is far from over”, James Rawley, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said.
Rawley, along with Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa, frame-worked the humanitarian needs for Gaza, and called for $551 million in education, healthcare, access to clean water and food aid.
“We challenge the world to be ambitious and daring in helping us realize recovery, reconstruction and a better future for Gaza. An immediate measure is to end the blockade on Gaza and ensure our people never again experience the horrors of this summer”, Mustafa said.
Rawley agreed with Mustafa on calls for a “full lifting of the blockade”.
Israel had agreed to ease the flow of goods into Gaza under the truce deal it struck with Hamas on August 26th.
However, restrictions still remain on building material, which will be crucial for the reconstruction of Gaza – large residential parts of the Palestinian strip have been completely flattened by Israeli bombardment during the war. Israeli authorities argue that concrete and still can be used to make weapons and to build tunnels to attack Israel.
Israel controls two of the three crossing into Gaza – one is used for the movement of goods and the other for personnel movement. Egypt controls the Rafah border crossing into Gaza. Tight restrictions are enforced on the movement of people, with only a few allowed to enter or leave the strip, and most allowances only given for humanitarian reasons.
