RAMALLAH: Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh today discussed during a meeting with the new United Nations Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, the need to enhance aid access to the Gaza Strip.

During a meeting in Ramallah, Shtayyeh called on the United Nations to put pressure on Israel to open all crossings to deliver adequate relief aid, stressing that the quality of aid is more important than the number of trucks, affirming the need to not only limit aid entry through the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

He also called for enabling the National Authority to transfer aid and medicine directly from the West Bank to Gaza, affirming the necessity of immediate action to restore electricity and water to Gaza.

Shtayyeh praised efforts made by the United Nations teams to document the crimes of the occupation and the boldness of the Secretary-General in criticizing these crimes, calling for intensifying international intervention to stop the aggression and the war crimes committed by Israel
against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including the killings, detentions, destruction, starvation and forced displacement.

The Prime Minister stressed that alongside the genocide that Israel is committing against the Palestinian people, it is practicing actions beyond reoccupying the West Bank; through the comprehensive destruction of refugee camps and all areas during daily incursions, the killing of hundreds of young men, establishment of colonial outposts, seizure of lands, demolition of facilities and the intensification of military checkpoints.

He slammed these Israeli measures as part of the overarching aim of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which is to destroy the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state.

Regarding post-war plans for Gaza, he stressed that they must include all Palestinian territories in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Jerusalem. ‘The plans must have a political horizon and practical steps to implement the two-state solutio
n on the ground, recognize the State of Palestine and embody its establishment on the 1967 borders.’

The next day after the war will carry many challenges, most notably dealing with the catastrophic humanitarian situation and massive destruction, which require an international effort and a political framework to complete the reconstruction process and ensure that the aggression will not be repeated, Shtayyeh affirmed.

Source: Palestine news and Information Agency – WAFA