Hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid will be
needed immediately to help Gaza's 1.4 million people and
billions of dollars will be required to rebuild its shattered
buildings and infrastructure, the UN humanitarian chief said.
John Holmes said some neighborhoods have been almost totally
destroyed and many homes have been reduced to rubble. Sewage
is flowing in some streets, there are huge medical and food
needs, and unexploded ordnance is posing a big problem, he
said.
While 100,000 people had their running water restored on
Sunday, 400,000 still have no water, electricity is available
for less than half the day, and 100,000 people are displaced
from their homes, Holmes said.
"It may not be very clear who actually won this conflict, if
such a concept means anything in Gaza, but I think it's
pretty clear who lost and that was the civilian population of
Gaza, and to a much lesser extent the civilian population of
southern Israel," Holmes told reporters at UN headquarters.
According to the latest casualty figures from the Palestinian
Ministry of Health, he said, 1,314 people died in Gaza,
including 416 children and 106 women, and 5,320 were injured,
including 1,855 children and 795 women - compared to nine
Israeli soldiers and four Israeli civilians killed, and 84
Israeli civilians injured.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at a press conference
in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt on Sunday that he was sending a UN
team to assess the humanitarian needs and wanted a report in
10 days so the UN can issue an emergency appeal for funds.
Ban said that within three weeks, he wants an assessment and
early recovery projects and essential repairs.
Speaking to reporters at UN headquarters, Holmes said UN
staff in Gaza are already trying "to find out as much as they
can about how great the damage is and how great the needs
are." He said additional UN personnel will be joining them,
and he hopes to be in Gaza later this week and contribute to
the assessment process.
Asked to estimate the costs, Holmes said he couldn't give
exact figures until the assessments are completed.
"I think on the purely humanitarian and early recovery side
... it will be hundreds of million of dollars," he said, "and
no doubt the overall reconstruction costs will be numbered in
billions of dollars, but I wouldn't want to put a figure on
it beyond that."
He welcomed a $US1 ($NZ1.86) billion pledge to Gaza's
reconstruction from Saudi Arabia.
Holmes stressed, however, that to successfully rebuild Gaza,
the current "temporary and fragile cease-fire" must be
transformed into a permanent and durable truce, with all
border crossings opened to allow full access for humanitarian
staff and to revive the economy.
"There've been promises from the Israeli authorities that
there will be access, but that's not yet been fulfilled in
terms of people actually getting through the crossing at
Eretz, and that's something we will be continuing to peruse
urgently with them," he said.
As for initial assessments since the temporary cease-fires,
Holmes said, "a total of 50 UN facilities, by our
calculation, have been damaged during the hostilities so we
have a huge amount of reconstruction of our own." He said
there is also "enormous strain on hospitals and medical
facilities, not least because 21 medical facilities were
damaged during the fighting." noting that Al-Quds Hospital,
which was damaged by shelling several days ago, is still
closed and other hospitals are only partly open because they
were also hit.
John Ging, head of Gaza operations for the United Nations
Relief and Works Agency which helps Palestinian refugees,
told reporters by videolink from Gaza that about 20,000
people who had taken refuge at UN shelters were expected to
stay in their own homes Monday night.
"This leaves us with well over 35,000 in our shelters
tonight," he said.
"These shelters are schools, and this will be an urgent
priority for us to deal with so that we can resume our
education program."
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