UN says Israel must pay for aid

GAZA CITY – The United Nations’ humanitarian chief suggested yesterday that Israel should pay for the hundreds of tons of food and other supplies destroyed when Israeli shells struck the main United Nations compound in Gaza.

Touring Gaza to assess what is most urgently needed in the coastal strip, UN official John Holmes called the steep Palestinian casualty toll from Israel’s offensive ‘extremely shocking’ and suggested the United Nations might ask Israel to compensate it for wartime damage to UN compounds in Gaza. Hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid were destroyed by Israeli shelling that struck the main UN compound.
‘We want to make sure it is properly investigated and that we get proper accountability for it and proper compensation if it is needed and I think it will be needed,’ Holmes told reporters. Israel waged a 22-day war meant to end rocket fire on southern Israel from Hamas-ruled Gaza. Cease-fires declared by both sides Sunday ended an offensive that killed some 1 300 Palestinians and wounded thousands, according to Gaza health officials, and inflicted widespread destruction in Gaza. Thirteen Israelis were also killed, according to the government. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the war could help hasten the return of a captive soldier long held by Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli media said some Cabinet ministers have softened their positions on releasing dangerous Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the soldier, signaling the government is trying to work out a deal with Hamas ahead of Israeli elections next month. Low-level violence on both sides has marred the cease-fire and yesterday a Palestinian man and girl walking near the shore in Gaza City were wounded by a shell fired from an Israeli gunboat, a Gaza health official said. Another shell landed 100 yards metres away in an empty area near a UN aid distribution centre. And heavy-caliber bullet fire struck at least one house in the area, a witness said. The Israeli military said it was firing to deter a Palestinian fishing vessel that had strayed off-limits. On the first day of a five-day trip to the region, Holmes said he was looking at immediate humanitarian needs and thinking about longer-term reconstruction in Gaza. The biggest concerns, he said, are providing clean water, sanitation, electricity and shelter to people displaced by the fighting. Gaza’s blockaded border crossings will have to be opened to allow reconstruction to begin, he said. ‘Goods have to be able to get in freely and in the right quantities, including construction materials, so that reconstruction can start.’ Israel and Egypt have kept the crossings largely closed since Hamas militants seized power in Gaza in June 2007, choking off most supplies to the tiny seaside territory and trapping most of its 1.4 million people inside. Hamas says the borders must be opened as part of any cease-fire deal. Israeli Cabinet Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who takes part in security deliberations, told Army Radio yesterday that Israel wouldn’t let border crossings with Gaza reopen without a deal to free Sgt. Gilad Schalit, captured by Hamas-affiliated militants in a June 2006 cross-border raid. – Nampa-AP