The United States has announced it is providing $212 million in new aid to the Palestinian Authority unity government for reconstruction in Gaza.
The announcement was made midday Sunday at the international donor conference being held in Cairo, co-sponsored by Egypt and Norway in cooperation with the United Nations, European Union and Arab League.
The gathering is being held to provide funds for reconstruction in Gaza, under the aegis of the Palestinian Authority unity government. “I promise you the full commitment of President [Barack] Obama, myself and the United States,” Secretary of State John Kerry told participants as he made the announcement.
But wealthy donor countries remained wary going in to the conference, given the tensions remaining between Gaza terrorists and Israel.
Foreign ministers from more than 30 nations convened in the Egyptian capital to discuss the request by the PA for $4 billion to rebuild the destroyed parts of Gaza.
“It’s fair to say there are serious questions being raised by the donors,” a State Department official told reporters at a news conference. The official acknowledged concerns expressed by donors that unless the cycle of violence is broken, they would find themselves “back here doing the same thing again in a year or two.”
He predicted that Gulf States would provide the lion’s share of funding for reconstruction in Gaza, and the U.S. and Europe would provide “meaningful and appropriate” amounts as well. But, he said, “I don’t know whether anybody thinks we’re going to get to four billion [dollars] or whether we [even] need those kind of pledges right now.”