Donor nations pledging aid to the Palestinians are ready to put nearly €900 million on the table for Gaza's reconstruction, the European Commission announced Monday, though officials said the funds still hinge on conditions being met on the ground.
Gaza City © Mena Today
Donor nations pledging aid to the Palestinians are ready to put nearly €900 million on the table for Gaza's reconstruction, the European Commission announced Monday, though officials said the funds still hinge on conditions being met on the ground.
"We will present the initial package today of almost 900 million euros or one billion dollars," said Dubravka Suica, EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean, ahead of the donor meeting in Brussels. "We now need the conditions on the ground that will allow the support to reach the people in Gaza."
Dubbed the "Team Gaza Initiative," the package brings together the European Commission, 12 EU member states, including Spain, Germany, France and Italy, along with Japan, Switzerland, the World Bank and the European Investment Bank. The funds, which include money already pledged to Gaza, would go toward clearing rubble left by Israel's military offensive and rebuilding basic services such as water, sanitation and health systems.
Around 65 delegations are taking part in the donor conference, one of whose main goals is to assess progress on reforms undertaken by the Palestinian Authority.
The EU and the Authority have agreed on a reform program tied to the two-state solution Brussels supports, aimed at significantly improving budget management and public spending, fighting corruption, and strengthening public governance.
A United Nations official has said Palestinian militant group Hamas was disrupting aid distribution in the Gaza Strip, placing further hardship on its civilians already grappling with the humanitarian crisis in the war-shattered enclave.
European Union foreign ministers will on Monday explore whether there is enough support for new measures to curb trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to diplomats and officials.
Money is on its way to Cairo. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty confirmed Saturday that a €1.5 billion tranche from the European Union's macro-financial assistance package will arrive within days, the first of two remaining instalments from a €5 billion facility that forms the centrepiece of a broader EU-Egypt financial partnership.
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