CAIRO
Countries participating in an international conference on the Gaza Strip in the Egyptian capital Cairo on Sunday pledged to contribute a total of $5.4 billion.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende, whose country had sponsored the conference, together with Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, said that half of the pledged funds would go for the reconstruction of the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
He said conference participants were committed to contributing this aid in response to the needs of the Palestinian people.
It was not, however, immediately clear where the remaining portion of the pledged $5.4-billion aid would go.
Brende, reading out the final statement of the conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri sitting next to him, said the international community had committed itself to paying the pledged financial support next year.
He said stakeholders had agreed that the two-state solution – based on international conventions – would be the only solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, on one hand, and the road to peace between the Arabs and Israel, on the other.
Conference participants, meanwhile, urged the Palestinian leadership to resume serious peace negotiations with Israel in order to put an end to the conflict, according to the final statement of the conference.
Peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel have been suspended since April when Israel refused to honor a previous pledge to release a group of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Calls have been made during the Gaza reconstruction conference in Cairo for resuming these negotiations.
Among the top officials who made the calls were Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and United States Secretary of State John Kerry.
Brende said the Gaza Strip was an intrinsic part of Palestinian territories occupied by Israel in 1967 as well as an essential part of the future Palestinian state.
He said challenges in Gaza and the occupied West Bank could be overcome through a real agreement between the Palestinians and Israel.
Egypt's Foreign Minister, for his part, said conference participants considered the Egypt-brokered August 26 Gaza cease-fire and control by the new Palestinian national unity government over Gaza "necessary factors" in the success of donor countries in Gaza's reconstruction.
Israel launched a 51-day offensive on the Palestinian territory with the stated aim of preventing Gaza factions from firing rockets on it.
The offensive left, however, around 2,157 people dead and more than 11,000 others injured. It also destroyed thousands of homes and facilities, turning parts of the Gaza Strip into total ruin.
The Palestinian Authority had earlier said that it aimed to raise $4 billion during the conference for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
Representatives from 50 states, including 30 foreign ministers, attended the conference in Cairo on Sunday, along with the representatives of several regional and international organizations.
By Hagar al-Dosoki
www.aa.com.tr/en
