The funding commitment comes after the two-day offensive that destroyed the narrow streets and alleys of the camp. The military operation, which sought to stop Palestinian insurgents after a series of recent attacks against Israelis, caused thousands of people to flee their homes. Twelve Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed in the fighting.
The funds will be given to the United Nations agency that helps Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, to rebuild damaged homes and businesses and for agency services, the official Emirati news agency WAM reported. UNRWA has struggled to raise the funds needed to maintain operations that help millions of people across the Middle East on a daily basis.
As part of the fierce Israeli incursion, military bulldozers bulldozed the streets to clear the way for hundreds of mobilized soldiers. The withdrawal of Israeli troops on Wednesday revealed a picture of destruction.
Roads in this densely populated area, which has about 24,000 residents, were wrecked, with piles of broken asphalt, stones and rocks lining the sides. The cars, some of them overturned in the ditches, were wrecked and burned.
UNRWA said some of its facilities, including the windows and walls of a health center and the access road to its school, were damaged.
Israel launched the raid on the camp, which has been a Palestinian insurgency stronghold for years, on Monday, saying its aim was to destroy and confiscate weapons. It carried out airstrikes and mobilized hundreds of soldiers in a display reminiscent of the bloody period two decades ago known as the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, against Israel’s indefinite occupation.
Many Palestinians see the actions of the Palestinian gunmen as the inevitable result of 56 years of occupation and the absence of a political process with Israel. In addition, they point to the increase in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and violence by extremist settlers.
More than 140 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank so far in 2023, while Palestinian attacks on Israelis have killed at least 25 people, including four settlers in a gunfight last month.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War, as well as East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, the three territories the Palestinians want for their future independent state.
FUENTE: Associated Press
