Aid Agencies Gear Up for Massive Gaza Rehabilitation
Voice of America
GENEVA - International aid agencies are assessing the damage caused in the Gaza Strip during recent fighting between Israel and Gaza militants to get an estimate of the likely cost of rehabilitating the Palestinian territory.
Aid agencies are expressing enormous relief at the cease-fire that has ended 11 days of clashes that they say caused unbearable and unacceptable costs for all civilian populations, including in Israel. The World Health Organization says about 275 people have died, with more than 8,000 injured. It says 17 primary health care centers have been damaged, and essential drugs and medical supplies are in short supply. Though the fighting has stopped, the director of the U.N. relief and works agency (UNRWA), Matthias Schmale, said people in Gaza are in danger of unexploded devices. Speaking on a video link from Gaza City, he said UNRWA is moving from emergency response to early recovery, which will involve more than just fixing what has been broken.Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. A member of the bomb squad of the Israeli police collects debris after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck in the Israeli city of Herzliya on May 26, 2024.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, right, and Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, left, leave a podium after marking Independence Day in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 26, 2024. Demonstrators with Georgian national and EU flags rally during an opposition protest against a foreign influence bill as they mark their country's Independence Day, in the center of in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 26, 2024.