EU envoy: Israel must ease aid restrictions on 'hell-like' Gaza

Israel must lift its ban on materials to rebuild Gaza after its offensive in a territory resembling "hell" where children have to sleep outside shattered homes, the European Union's Middle East envoy said in Jerusalem on Tuesday. "What encouragement to terrorism would it be to rebuild the sewage system, have clean water, have kids going to school, have clinics that work, have mothers delivering their babies in safe conditions?" Marc Otte asked following Operation Cast Lead - Israel's devastating 22-day assault in the Hamas-ruled territory. While Israel has opened Gaza's border crossings to larger amounts of food and medicine, it has so far balked at letting in construction materials, including glass, steel and cement, needed to rebuild the thousands of Palestinian homes, roads and buildings destroyed or damaged during the war. "We just want that Gaza looks less like hell than it's looking now," Otte said. "I hope we see flexibility soon because it's not acceptable to simply say to people that for political reasons they and their children have to sleep outside." Otte said donor nations were in agreement that any building program in the enclave be overseen by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Islamist group Hamas's main rival. But Otte said the EU would be open to supporting a Palestinian unity government of non-partisan technocrats, provided Hamas and Abbas's secular Fatah faction put forward a platform that does not conflict with Western demands. Israeli officials say materials presently blocked could be used by Hamas to build rockets, bunkers and smuggling tunnels, and that a big reconstruction campaign would strengthen Hamas's hold on power at the expense of the Palestinian Authority. "We're not going to rebuild Hamas's headquarters or provide weapons," Otte said. "Nobody wants Hamas to be legitimised unless they comply with certain practical and political conditions. But they're still going to be there. Reconstruction should not be mixed." While the Western-backed Palestinian Authority would take the lead in planning the rebuilding, work itself would probably be done by others, including UN agencies and contractors. The EU is the biggest donor to the Palestinians and has announced another 58 million Euros in humanitarian aid for 2009, of which 32 million Euros would go to Gaza. "Everybody has agreed that those who actually will have to be the recipient of the reconstruction are the legitimate government of the Palestinian Authority," Otte said, referring to Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's administration in the West Bank city of Ramallah, set up by Abbas after Hamas took over Gaza."The address of the Palestinian Authority is in Ramallah, with the president, with the prime minister, with the government that everybody has agreed to work with, including Israel." "When it comes to providing additional public money, governments need assurances about where this money is going, and Hamas is not a government, Hamas is a movement," Otte said.