UN official urges 'political process' amid Gaza reconstruction

A UN official in the besieged Gaza Strip on Sunday called for a "genuine political process" to avert further bloodshed after 11 days of Israeli bombardment that ravaged the Palestinian enclave.

As emergency response teams worked to clear the rubble, and Gaza residents assessed the damage to their homes and shops, top UN staff visited the territory after an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire on Friday halted the Israeli military campaign and rocket fire by Palestinian militant groups.

Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since May 10 have killed more than 200 Palestinians, including 66 children, rendered thousands homeless and laid waste to buildings and key water and power infrastructure in the blockaded territory.

It was the latest such bombardment to hit the densely populated besieged strip of some two million people after three previous wars with Israel since 2008.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, told AFP that the reconstruction needed to go hand in hand with efforts to create "a different political environment".

"We need to have a genuine, genuine focus on human development, on proper access to education, on proper access to jobs, on proper access to livelihoods," he said. "But this needs to be accompanied by a genuine political process."

Speaking earlier to a group of journalists, he said "the layers of hardship in Gaza keep getting thicker" because the root causes of the conflict have not been addressed.

US President Joe Biden on Friday pledged to help organise efforts to rebuild Gaza and said creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel is the "only answer" to the conflict.

"We still need a two-state solution," he said.

'No pause to breathe'

Israeli strikes on Gaza killed 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, and have wounded over 1,900 people, the Gaza health ministry says.

Lynn Hastings, of the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, said that beyond the material damage, the intense bombing had done severe harm to many people's mental health.

During the last war in 2014, "we had humanitarian pauses, where people were able to get out, and were able to go to the shops, they were able to feel safe again," she said.

"That really speaks to the amount of trauma that was experienced this time, where there was absolutely no pause for people to breathe."

"The comments that I have heard are not 'I need access to water' - even though there are 800,000 people who don't have access to clean water right now - but... about the impacts on their lives overall and how they are ever going to recover from this," she said.

Authorities on Saturday started distributing tents and mattresses in the Gaza Strip, as OCHA said at least 6,000 people had been made homeless by the bombardment.

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

The UN's Central Emergency Response Fund said it had released $18.5 million for humanitarian efforts.

The international community has welcomed the ceasefire and the UN Security Council on Saturday called for "full adherence" to it.

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

Lingering tensions

The latest military escalation started after Israeli police attacked Palestinian worshippers in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam's third holiest site, toward the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The assault came amid protests against the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah to make way for Jewish settlers.

The police violence prompted Hamas to launch rockets from Gaza towards Israel on May 10, and Israel responded with intense airstrikes.

On Sunday, Jewish extremists stormed the Al-Aqsa compound for the first time in about three weeks.

They were accompanied by Israeli police, who prevented the entry of Muslim worshippers into the compound and allegedly assaulted Palestinian guards.

Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina warned that the Israeli visits could "sabotage" the Gaza ceasefire, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Israeli police on Friday fired stun grenades at worshippers in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, and Israeli forces beat an AFP photographer who was covering the unrest.

The incident was reminiscent of the tensions that sparked the latest round of conflict.