The UN has brokered an agreement to enable the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, giving a lead role to the Palestinian Authority while involving the private sector, the UN’s top Middle East envoy said on Tuesday.
The agreement between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the UN includes UN monitoring to ensure that construction materials will not be diverted from civilian to military uses, Robert Serry told the UN Security Council.
The brutal Gaza war left more than 2,100 Palestinians dead, the majority of them civilians, according to Palestinian and UN officials. Israel says the number of militants killed was much higher and accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields. On the Israeli side, 66 soldiers and six civilians were killed.
Serry said he witnessed “truly shocking levels of destruction to infrastructure, hospitals and schools” during a visit to Gaza last week.
Large neighborhoods have been totally ruined, an estimated 18,000 houses were destroyed or severely damaged, he said. About 100,000 people have lost their homes, “leaving families shattered and despairing.”
He said 111 UN facilities were damaged and more than 65,000 displaced Palestinians are still living in UN shelters.
“The Gaza conflict is an appalling human tragedy, and has also exacted a terrible cost in already strained trust,” Serry said. “While the ceasefire brokered by Egypt has largely held since Aug. 16, it remains worryingly fragile with the underlying dynamics still unaddressed.”
He said the UN considers the “Temporary mechanism” to rebuild Gaza “a signal of hope to the people of Gaza” and an important step toward lifting all remaining closures of crossings into the Strip.
He said that it “must get up and running without delay.”
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