GAZA CITY (AFP) — Britain will give 30 million pounds towards rebuilding Gaza, International Development Minister Douglas Alexander said on Sunday in the first high-level British visit to the enclave since Hamas took over.
Speaking a day before an international reconstruction conference in Egypt, Alexander said he was horried by the human suffering he saw in the wake of the devastating Israel-Hamas war in the tiny Palestinian territory.
"Today I am making an allocation of 30 million pounds (43 million dollars, 34 million euros) as a new statement of our commitment to do what we can as a British government to alleviate the suffering," Alexander told reporters.
He did not specify to whom the funds would be given.
It was the first British ministerial visit to the coastal strip since the Islamists seized power in June 2007, ousting loyalists of Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas.
"I have been horrified by the scale of human suffering I have witnessed," he said. "Little prepares you for the stories of suffering you are told and the physical destruction you witness."
He called on Israel to open border crossings into the territory that it has kept sealed to all but humanitarian goods since the takeover by Hamas, a group pledged to the destruction of the Jewish state.
"We want to see full and unfettered access both for aid and for aid workers here in Gaza," he said.
Donors gathering in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday are expected to pledge billions of dollars for gaza reconstruction after the devastating war in December and January left vast swathes of the territory in ruins and killed more than 1,300 Palestians and 13 Israelis.
However, the funds are expected to be conditional on the enclave's Hamas rulers agreeing not to play a role in spending the cash.
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