RAMALLAH // The United Nations and the Palestinian government on Tuesday called for more than Dh2 billion in aid to help hundreds of thousands of Gazans affected by a devastating war with Israel.
The appeal comes two weeks after Israel and Hamas ended 50 days of bloodshed that killed more than 2,100 people in the territory, mostly civilians, and a month ahead of a donors’ conference in Cairo.
“The scope of damage and devastation is unprecedented in the Gaza Strip,” said James Rawley, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories.
“The crisis is far from over.”
Mr Rawley and the Palestinian deputy prime minister Mohammed Mustafa outlined the humanitarian needs for post-war Gaza, calling for US$551 million for food aid, access to clean water, healthcare and education.
“We challenge the world to be ambitious and daring in helping us realise recovery, reconstruction and a better future for Gaza,” Mr Mustafa said.
“An immediate measure is to end the blockade on Gaza and ensure our people never again experience the horrors of this summer,” he said.
Mr Rawley echoed calls for a “full lifting of the blockade.”
Israel agreed to ease restrictions on goods entering Gaza under a truce deal reached with Hamas on August 26.
But restrictions remain on building materials, which are crucial for reconstructing large residential areas that were flattened by Israeli artillery and aerial bombardment during the conflict.
Israel says steel and concrete could be used by Gaza militants to make weapons and build tunnels for attacking Israel.
Of the three crossings into the tiny coastal enclave, Israel controls two – one for people and another for goods. Egypt controls the third.
Meanwhile, the Israeli navy arrested four fishermen from Gaza and seized their boat on Tuesday , in one of the first instances of friction between the sides since the fighting ended last month.
The incident occurred off the northern town of Beit Lahiya, said Nizar Ayyash of the Gaza Fishermen’s Union. He provided no additional details.
The Israeli military said two vessels were involved in the incident. It said the vessels were operating outside of their permitted maritime limit, and after ignoring requests to move closer to shore, were boarded by naval personnel and seized.
Israel doubled the maritime area in which Gaza fishermen are permitted to operate from five to nine kilometres under the August 26 truce.
* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press
