UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — Only 28 percent of pledges made at the Cairo Gaza Reconstruction Conference in October 2014 have been disbursed to date, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, Robert Piper said Tuesday.
According to the UN estimates, some 2,251 Palestinians were killed, 1,462 of them civilians. The conflict is estimated to have claimed the lives of six civilians and 67 soldiers in Israel.
"Gaza is still in crisis, with civilians as always, paying the highest price. Our ability to move from short-term relief to longer-term reconstruction is constrained by a major shortfall in humanitarian funding. Nine months after the Cairo Reconstruction Conference, Gaza’s recovery process needs to be accelerated," Piper said in a statement published on the UN's website.
"In order to accelerate the recovery process, the Humanitarian Country Team calls on international donors to ensure that commitments made in Cairo quickly translate into concrete funding on the ground… In addition, it calls on Israel to review its list of ‘dual use’ items for which entry into Gaza is restricted, particularly those items required for urgent medical care," the UN statement said.
According to Piper, currently some 100,000 people in Gaza remain internally displaced and 120,000 are still waiting to be reconnected to the city water supply.
