UN official: Gaza crisis could undermine peacemaking

Ma'an
Bethlehem – The unresolved crisis in Gaza could undercut attempts to advance Palestine-Israel peace talks, the United Nations’ Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry told the Security Council on Tuesday......

Gaza, which recently endured a devastating Israeli military offensive, will be on the agenda at the Quartet’s meeting in Trieste, Italy on Friday...

Serry also reported a “notable and welcome” drop in violence over the past month, as well as efforts to prevent shipments of weapons to Gaza.

“Conditions for the civilian population remain of grave concern,” Serry said, specifically citing Israel’s import restrictions.

“The overall quantity and range of goods remains grossly insufficient to support normal economic and social activity. About 70 trucks per day have entered Gaza in the past month, 15% less than the daily average last month, and compared with 392 trucks per day in May 2007 when there was a functioning import-export system,” he told the Council.

He added that it is “completely unacceptable” that no reconstruction materials are allowed into Gaza, when an entire civilian population was trapped in a war zone and given the scale of damage caused by Israel’s military operation earlier this year.

Last month, Maxwell Gaylard, the top UN humanitarian official in the occupied Palestinian territories, said the Israeli offensive destroyed some 4,000 homes and damaged another 40,000, according to the UN News Center. Full story