World leaders offer vast sums of money to reconstruct Gaza after the Palestinian-Israeli conflict amid warnings that financial donations are a 'band-aid fix'
5:50PM BST 12 Oct 2014
International donors have pledged hundreds of millions of pounds towards reconstruction efforts in Gaza, almost two maonths after the Palestinian territory was bombarded by a seven week-Israeli attack.
The Palestinian Authority has appealed for $4bn to rebuild areas damaged in fighting between Hamas and Israel, which killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, 67 Israeli soldiers and six civilians inside Israel.
The British government yesterday pledged to more than double the amount of money donated to reconstruction efforts, offering an £20 million to the £17 million already spent since the conflict concluded this summer.
The funds will go towards disposal of unexploded ordnance, rubble clearance programmes and reconstructive surgery for those injured in the fighting.
Their announcement came at an conference held to atttract government donations, during which Qatar said it would be adding $1 billion to the fund and US Secretary of State John Kerry promised a further $212 million.
But as the foreign dignitaries lined up to signal their commitment to the resurrection of the battered territory, most also expressed disappointment with the frequent need for similar meetings.
“I do not want my successors or yours to make conferences such as this a ritual. Building and destroying - and then expecting the international community to foot the bill,” said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Mr Kerry called for a renewed commitment to peace, saying a sustainable deal between Israel, Palestinians and their regional neighbours was achievable. He said anything else would be a “band-aid fix”.
“Aid is not going to give Gaza a future, we need a political transformation,” Desmond Swayne, Britain’s minister of state at the Department for International Development told The Telegraph. “That will only come with a transformation in the peace process, and that will require phenomenal leadership.”
Large sections of Gaza were levelled in the latest round of fighting, leaving 100,000 people homeless and 450,000 with no access to water. Aerial photographs of the Shejaiya neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, show an urban wasteland.
But the prospects for peace are dim. Israel was absent from proceedings, reportedly at Egypt’s request, and chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation Mahmoud Abbas made no reference to negotiations in his speech, pledging only to maintain the August ceasefire agreement.
Neither is it Mr Abbas’ peace to keep. He has not visited Gaza for seven years, and the territory is under the de facto control of Hamas, the militant group whose rocket attacks have repeatedly perforated Israeli airspace, prompting retaliatory airstrikes. Hamas seized control of the Gaza in 2007, a year after winning elections and after a brief factional war with Fatah.
On Thursday, Palestinian prime minister Ramdi Hamdallah convened the first meeting of a new unity government made up of technocrats with no formal ties to Fatah or Hamas.
“We are here also to end the division and empower the language of reconciliation, Mr Hamdallah told reporters. His comments were intended to inspire the confidence of donors as they descended upon Cairo.
Mr Hamdallah will meet Ban Ki-moon in the West Bank on Monday before the Secretary General visits Gaza on Tuesday.
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