Palestinians walk past a damaged car as they return to their house after filling containers with water from a public tap in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. (photo credit: REUTERS)
Israel’s security cabinet is set to debate steps to help ease the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, where most of the two million Palestinians are living on only two to four hours of electricity a day.
The plan would need the cooperation of Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, and could include the use of the Sinai Peninsula to help Gaza. It would focus on infrastructure, power, water, industrial areas and jobs.
It would also speak of ways to speed up implementation of humanitarian projects.
Among the proposals under discussion will be those by former Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories head Yoav (Pauli) Mordechai and UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov.
On Thursday, Mladenov was in Cairo where he met with Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit to discuss humanitarian steps for Gaza.
At the May 30 Security Council meeting in New York, Mladenov said, “The UN will move forward on immediately enhancing our capacity and presence to facilitate project implementation in Gaza and improve coordination with Israel, Egypt and the PA.
“It is important that all sides agree to improve movement and access restrictions and ensure uninterrupted and upgraded water and electricity supply to the population,” he said.
“This plan is the only sustainable way to ensure that we do not slide again into another devastating conflict, that we do not allow Gaza to become a pawn in someone else’s plans, another tragedy on an already crowded map of regional Middle East conflicts.”
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