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UN seeks massive aid for Gaza, US wants border open
AFP - Saturday, January 24
JERUSALEM (AFP) - - The Palestinians of Gaza urgently need hundreds of millions of dollars for food and repairs, the UN said on Friday, as the US president added his voice to a clamour for Israel to fully open the enclave to aid.
UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said the Israeli offensive against the Islamist movement Hamas had caused more destruction than expected and called the death toll "shocking."
"A very significant appeal for resources of hundreds of millions of dollars," was required at the start of February for just the next six to nine months, he told a press conference.
"The level of destruction, which I expected to be high ... was even worse than what I expected," he said after touring Gaza.
He noted that the Palestinian health ministry listed more than 1,300 dead and 5,000 wounded during Israel's 22-day Operation Cast Lead. "They are very alarming figures, very shocking figures for a three-week campaign like that."
Gazans urgently need food, drinking water, fuel and the repair of the electricity network, Holmes said. At least 100,000 of Gaza's population of 1.5 million have been displaced.
In Washington, US President Barak Obama urged Israel to open Gaza border crossings to aid and commerce.
"Now we must extend a hand of opportunity to those who seek peace -- as part of a lasting ceasefire, Gaza's border crossings should be open to allow the flow of aid and commerce," Obama said.
In his first major comments on the Middle East conflict since he was inaugurated on Tuesday, he also called for a border monitoring regime involving the Palestinian Authority and the international community.
"Relief efforts must be able to reach innocent Palestinians who depend on them," Obama said.
Hamas must however stop firing rockets into Israeli territory, he said, strongly backing Israel's security.
Holmes said the UN needed the crossing points "fully open" to be able to do its job.
The UN recognised that with some 120 trucks being allowed into Gaza daily, the flow of humanitarian goods had improved. "But that's far from enough," he said.
"The basic requirements of Gaza for humanitarian and commercial goods, before the Hamas takeover (June 2007), was 500 to 600 hundreds trucks a day."
Israel has long kept the borders closed to all but basic humanitarian goods citing security fears as Palestinian militants lobbed occasional rockets at the south.
The army also allowed journalists into the Gaza Strip without restriction from Friday.
Obama's first days in office have already sparked a flurry of activity after months of stagnation and both Israel and the Palestinian Authority welcomed the appointment of former senator George Mitchell as the new US envoy to the Middle East.
"He's someone with experience of the Israel-Palestinian question and the settlement of political conflicts," Palestinian chief negotiator Ahmad Qorei told AFP.
Israel welcomed not only Mitchell but also Obama's move to "engage actively" in peace negotiations, foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said.
He recalled "the good working relationship" the Jewish state had enjoyed with Mitchell and said he was convinced it would continue.
In Washington, Obama said Mitchell would be sent to the region "as soon as possible" to ensure a "durable" and "sustainable" ceasefire in Gaza.
The United States would "actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace," Obama said.
The 75-year-old Mitchell negotiated the 1998 Good Friday agreement that helped bring peace to Northern Ireland.
Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said he hoped that Mitchell would bring "the change needed for a new start in the peace process leading to the creation of a Palestinian state."
Meanwhile, Hamas sent a three-man team to Cairo for talks on consolidating the ceasefire with Israel, a spokesman for the Islamist movement said.
Hamas has warned it will resume fighting if Israel does not open the crossings.
Both sides have observed their own ceasefires since last Sunday, but the Cairo government has sought a more formal ceasefire agreed by all sides.
Israeli envoy Amos Gilad met Egyptian officials Thursday looking to focus on stemming arms smuggling across the porous Gaza-Egypt border.
Some 200,000 Palestinian children were to return to UN-run schools in the Gaza Strip on Saturday. The United Nations relief agency operates 221 schools in the coastal enclave where more than 437 children were among the dead.
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Enlarge Photo
A boy carries a sack of items salvaged from a rubbish dump in Gaza City. The Palestinians of Gaza urgently need hundreds of millions of dollars for food and repairs, the UN has said, as the US president added his voice to a clamour for Israel to fully open the enclave to aid.
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