Millions pledged in Gaza aid
PUBLISHED : Monday, 13 October, 2014, 4:21am
UPDATED : Monday, 13 October, 2014, 4:21am
Agence France-Presse in Cairo
Palestinians walk during the sunset between the rubble of their destroyed building in Shijaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip. Photo: AP
International donors pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to rebuild the battered Gaza Strip yesterday and urged Israel and the Palestinians to renew peace efforts.
Gas-rich Qatar led the way at a donors conference in Cairo with a promise of US$1 billion in aid to the coastal enclave, devastated by its 50-day summer conflict with Israel.
Washington pledged US$212 million and European Union member states €450 million (HK$4.4 billion), but there was clear concern at financing the reconstruction of Gaza yet again without a peace deal in sight.
The crowded coastal enclave, ruled by the Islamist militant Hamas movement since 2007, remained a "tinderbox", United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon warned, announcing plans to visit Gaza tomorrow.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said Gaza was facing an "enormous" challenge.
"The people of Gaza do need our help, desperately, not tomorrow, not next week, they need it now," Kerry told the gathering of some 30 global envoys.
Kerry, who failed to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians earlier this year, urged renewed talks and said the two sides needed to make "tough choices". The call was echoed by Arab and European envoys.
