Palestinian Prime Minister urges international community to protect Palestinians

 Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah urged on Wednesday the international community to take effective measures to protect the Palestinian people and their lands with compelling the Israeli occupation to lift the unjust embargo on the Gaza Strip.

Hamdallah's statements came while presiding over a donor meeting on Gaza reconstruction in order to shed light on the progress made to date in the reconstruction efforts, and discuss the challenges facing the Palestinian Government due to Israeli obstacles and lack of sufficient funding.

The prime minister urged donor countries to "make good on their pledges", which they made at the 2014 Cairo Conference on the construction of Gaza, after the last Israeli aggression on the Strip

"Almost two years have passed since the end of the Israeli war on Gaza, and a large number of Palestinian families still suffer the consequences," said the premier.

Meanwhile, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, appealed to the international community to close the financial gap.

"I hope that we'll see more commitment to fulfill the pledges," Mladenov said.

He added that the rebuilding of homes is very important, but not enough, "the people in Gaza also have to rebuild their lives.

"According to the World Bank, only 1.4 billion US-Dollars or 40 percent of the pledges have been disbursed.

Source: MENA