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UN brokers agreement to rebuild in Gaza Strip UN brokers agreement to rebuild in Gaza Strip
(about 14 hours later)
The UN has orchestrated a deal for rebuilding in the Gaza Strip, giving prominent roles to the Palestinian Authority and the private sector, the UN's top Middle East envoy has said. A deal has been agreed by Israeli and Palestinian officials to allow building materials into the Gaza Strip for reconstruction, a top UN official says.
Robert Serry said that the agreement on the supply of building materials "must get up and running without delay". Robert Serry, special co-ordinator for the Middle East peace process, said the Palestinian Authority would play a lead role in the reconstruction effort.
He said that the deal, agreed with Israelis and Palestinians, enables building work to begin immediately. He said it was a step towards the aim of lifting all restrictions on Gaza.
Many buildings were destroyed in the conflict this summer. More than 100,000 people were left homeless by the recent 50-day conflict between Israel and militants in Gaza.
Between 8 July and 27 August, more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed in Gaza. Over that time 66 Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in and around Gaza and seven civilians were killed in Israel. The UN says that 2,133 Palestinians were also killed in the fighting, including 1,489 believed to have been civilians. On the Israeli side, 66 soldiers and seven civilians were killed.
The UN says the vast majority of Palestinian deaths are civilian but an Israeli government official recently told the BBC that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had killed 1,000 "terrorists" during the assault on Gaza. 'Fragile' ceasefire
Mr Serry said that he saw "truly shocking levels of destruction to infrastructure, hospitals and schools" during a visit to Gaza last week. Israel launched a major military operation in Gaza on 8 July, with the stated aim of stopping militants firing rockets and mortars at its territory.
He said that neighbourhoods had been razed and an estimated 18,000 houses flattened or severely damaged. Following several short-lived ceasefires, both sides agreed to an open-ended truce on 26 August which has so far held.
About 100,000 people have been left homeless, he said, "leaving families shattered and despairing". More than 65,000 displaced Palestinians remain in UN shelters. The Egyptian-brokered deal called for an indefinite halt to hostilities, the immediate opening of Gaza's crossings with Israel and Egypt, and a widening of the territory's Mediterranean fishing zone.
He said that while the ceasefire brokered by Egypt has largely held since 16 August, it is still "worryingly fragile with the underlying dynamics still unaddressed". On Tuesday, Mr Serry briefed the UN Security Council on the situation on the ground in the region and warned that the ceasefire remained "fragile".
The UN envoy said that the deal brokered between the two opposing sides addressed Israeli concerns that cement and other construction materials would not be used to rebuild Hamas tunnels, because building imports would be closely monitored. "The crisis in Gaza is far from over and the window of opportunity to address critical needs and stabilise the situation is short," he said.
He urged the reopening of crossing points between Israel and the Gaza Strip so that construction supplies would not be interrupted, stressing that fast work on reconstruction would provide a "signal of hope to the people of Gaza". Large areas of Gaza lay in total ruin, with an estimated 18,000 homes destroyed or severely damaged, along with 111 UN installations, many of them schools and hospitals, he added.
Egypt is due to host a donor conference to discuss Gaza reconstruction on 12 October, supported by Norway. Mr Serry announced that his office had brokered an agreement to enable large-scale reconstruction, involving the private sector in Gaza and giving a "lead role" to the Palestinian Authority, "while providing security assurances through UN monitoring that these materials will not be diverted from their entirely civilian purpose".
"The crisis in Gaza is far from over and the window of opportunity to address critical needs and stabilise the situation is short," Mr Serry warned. The Israeli government is worried that they might be used to rebuild tunnels under Gaza's frontier from which attacks have been launched.
The Israeli defence ministry confirmed that it had signed up for the deal. Mr Serry added that the UN stood ready to provide "increased technical assistance" to the Palestinian unity government, which was formed in June by the Fatah movement of PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas, the militant Islamist group that dominates Gaza.
Relations between the two factions have deteriorated and it is unclear whether Hamas will be part of the unified Palestinian delegation at the second phase of the ceasefire talks in Cairo.
Mr Serry later told reporters that the new temporary reconstruction mechanism in Gaza represented "an important step, which I hope will give hope to the people in Gaza, and an important step, we hope, towards the full lifting of remaining closures in Gaza".
He hoped it would also increase donor confidence ahead of an international conference in Egypt on 12 October. Palestinian leaders have estimated the cost of reconstruction at $7bn (£4.3bn).
Israel's Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Tuesday that the number of lorries allowed through the Kerem Shalom crossing with Gaza would increase to 380 a day from an average of 250.
The Israeli military also reported that a mortar shell fired from Gaza had landed in southern Israel, the first since the ceasefire came into force.