The United Nations urges “political process” in the reconstruction of Gaza

A UN official in war-battered Gaza Sunday involved a “genuine political process” to avert further bloodshed, after the military conflict between Israel and Islamist group Hamas that ravaged the Palestinian enclave.

As thousands of Gazans slowly tried to piece back together their lives, top UN staff visited the territory after an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire Friday halted 11 days of mutual bombardment, where they warned of the deep psychological trauma of the violence.

On Sunday, during a badly-damaged district of Gaza city, volunteers swept up clouds of dust at the feet of collapsed buildings, while others shoveled debris onto the rear of a donkey-drawn cart.

Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip since May 10 have killed quite 200 Palestinians, rendered thousands homeless and laid waste to buildings and key infrastructure across the blockaded territory.

It was the newest such bombardment to hit the crowded coastal strip of some two million people, after three previous wars with Israel since 2008.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, said the reconstruction needed to travel hand in hand with efforts to make “a different political environment”.

“We got to have a real specialise in human development,” on proper access to education, jobs and livelihoods, he said.

“But this must be amid a real political process”.

Speaking earlier to a gaggle of journalists, he said “the layers of hardship in Gaza keep getting thicker”, because the basis causes of the conflict haven’t been addressed.

Lynn Hastings, of the UN aid agency OCHA, said the extreme bombing had devastated people’s psychological state .

During the last war in 2014, “we had humanitarian pauses, where people were ready to get out,” she said.

“That really speaks to the quantity of trauma that was experienced this point , where there was absolutely no pause for people to breathe.

“The comments that i’ve got heard aren’t ‘I need access to water’ — although there are 800,000 people that do not have access to wash riparian right now — but about the impacts on their lives overall and the way they’re ever getting to get over this,” she said.

Sitting drinking coffee under an fruit tree near his destroyed house in Gaza, Abou Yahya was furious.

“If I had 50 sons, i might tell them to travel and fight Israel,” he said.

An Israeli air strike hit his home last week, reducing it to rubble, and he has vowed to sleep on top of the debris.

“My family has asked me to go away it, to not sleep here, but I won’t budge,” he said. “Here is my home”.

Authorities have begun distributing tents and mattresses within the Gaza Strip , because the UN said in any case 6,000 people had been made homeless by the bombardment.

Lorries bringing much-needed medicine, food and fuel entered Gaza Friday through the Kerem Shalom crossing after Israel reopened it.

Peace talks have stalled since 2014, including over the status of occupied east Jerusalem and Israeli settlements within the occupied West Bank .

The latest military escalation started after violent clashes in Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site, which is additionally revered by Jews because the Temple Mount.

Israeli forces had moved in on Palestinian worshippers at the location, toward the top of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

They had also sought to quell protests against the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes within the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, to form way for Jewish settlers.

The clashes prompted Hamas to launch rockets from Gaza towards Israel on May 10, and Israel responded with air strikes.

On Sunday, Jewish visitors entered the Al-Aqsa compound for the primary time in about three weeks.