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![South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane leads the South African delegation at the Gaza donor conference in Cairo, Egypt on 12 September 2014 [GCIS]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/BzvN4rdCQAEVXFz.jpg-large.jpg)
South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane leads the South African delegation at the Gaza donor conference in Cairo, Egypt on 12 September 2014 [GCIS]
“In addition, Special Envoys appointed to remain seized with the matter,” said Clayson Monyela, spokesperson of the South African Foreign Ministry referring to South Africa’s two special envoys to the Middle East, Aziz Pahad and Zola Skweyiya.
India and South Africa will also cooperate within the IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) bloc for Gaza’s rebuilding, said the Indian Foreign Ministry.
“These are humanitarian projects. For example, India will work with IBSA in reconstructing Atta Habib medical centre in Gaza,” tweeted Indian spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin.
Pretoria and New Delhi are also implementing a series of development projects under the IBSA Fund in Palestine.
One of the important future IBSA projects will be the reconstruction of the Atta Habib medical centre in Shujiyaa, Gaza, at a cost of $1 million. Additionally, India has been contributing $1 million annually to the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) for supply of food and medicines in Gaza.
On Sunday, Palestine presented the “National Early Recovery and Reconstruction Plan for Gaza” at the international conference attended by over 75 countries and international organisations on Sunday that raised $5.4 billion for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
Qatar led the donors list by pledging $1 billion, surpassing the US and European donors.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende, who chaired the conference, praised the efforts of the international community.
“This is a major breakthrough and a very important signal of solidarity to the Palestinian people in general, and mostly to the people that are suffering so badly in Gaza,” Brende said.
“The goals of the conference not only aimed at rebuilding the war-torn Gaza, but also tried to end the seven-year-old blockade imposed on the Strip and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state based on the two-state solution,” the Norwegian Foreign Minister said in a joint statement with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shukri after the conference.
Meanwhile, global development group Oxfam warned that the bulk of money pledged at the donor conference to rebuild Gaza will languish in bank accounts for decades before it reaches people unless long-standing Israeli restrictions on imports are lifted.
“Under current restrictions and rate of imports it could take more than 50 years to build the 89,000 new homes, 226 new schools and the health facilities, factories and water and sanitation infrastructure that people in Gaza need,” Oxfam said in a statement posted on its website.
Egypt has recently brokered a comprehensive truce between the Palestinians and Israel after a 51-day Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip that left more than 2,000 Palestinians killed, 11,000 others wounded and over 100,000 homeless, while Hamas attacks killed at least 73 Israelis.
Members of the BRICS bloc voted in Geneva in July in favor of a Palestinian draft submitted to an emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to investigate alleged war crimes committed during Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.
TBP and Agencies
