Genuine political process needed in Gaza, says UN official after ceasefire

“A genuine political process” is needed in Gaza to avert further bloodshed, a UN official said on Sunday, two days after Israel and Hamas agree to a ceasefire ending 11 days of mutual bombardment.

A top UN staff visited Gaza, where people are slowly trying to piece back their lives together, and said the reconstruction needed to go hand in hand with efforts to create “a different political environment”.

“We need to have a genuine focus on human development,” on proper access to education, jobs, and livelihoods, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, said.

“But this needs to be accompanied by a genuine political process,” the UN official said. 

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He added that the “layers of hardship in Gaza keep getting thicker” because the root causes of the conflict in the strip have not been addressed.

More than 200 Palestinians have been killed in Israel airstrikes on Gaza since May 10. The bombardments have left thousands homeless and turned many buildings and key infrastructure into waste.

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According to the Gaza health ministry, Israeli airstrikes have killed 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, and have wounded over 1,900 people in the territory.

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

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Rockets from Gaza claimed 12 lives in Israel, including one child and an Arab-Israeli teenager, an Israeli soldier, one Indian, and two Thai nationals, medics say. Some 357 people in Israel have been wounded.