Palestinian Authority Demands Israel Responsibility Of Gaza Reconstruction Fees

UN News/Ziad Taleb

JAKARTA - The Palestinian Authority urges Israel to bear the financial burden of rebuilding the Gaza Strip and demonstrate a greater commitment to maintaining a two-state solution.

"Israel must be responsible for the destruction and casualties in the Gaza Strip and bear responsibility for its reconstruction," Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said in a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Tsuji Kiyoto in Ramallah as reported by ANTARA from Anadolu, Wednesday, February 28.

The Shtayyeh government will act as a temporary government until a new government can be formed, after he resigned on Monday, February 26.

Shtayyeh also criticized Israel's actions, saying they committed serious atrocities against the Palestinian people, encouraged apartheid and acted as if they were immune to legal consequences.

He stressed his priority was to stop aggression against his people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and open more crossings with the Gaza Strip in order to allow the entry of urgent humanitarian and medical aid.

Shtayyeh also advocated further efforts to preserve the two-state solution and implement it in the field, achieving this by ending the occupation and recognizing the Palestinian state within the 1967 border with its capital city in Jerusalem.

Israel killed nearly 30,000 people in the Gaza Strip and caused mass destruction and shortages of basic necessities, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have died.

The Israeli war has forced 85 percent of Gaza's population to flee amid food shortages, clean water and medicines, while 60 percent of infrastructure in the enclave has been damaged or destroyed, according to the United Nations.

Israel is being prosecuted for committing genocide at the International Court. A provisional decision in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocide and take action to ensure that humanitarian aid was provided to civilians in Gaza.