Donors Double Expected Funds for Lebanon Aid

|PIC1|Donors have nearly doubled expected funds given for aid in Lebanon on Thursday as they offered US$940 million to help rebuild the devastated country.

International donors are also set to meet in Stockholm, Sweden, to discuss further aid for the Palestinian territories left ravaged by widespread bombing from the Israelis. Sweden has said it will attempt to surpass the UN appeal target of US$330 million.

However, the UN’s humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland has also issued a warning to donors not to allow their attentions to be taken away from the Gaza “ticking time bomb”.

Egeland said, “One point four million people feel as if they are living in a cage. The border crossings are really closed. They cannot get anything out, this is crippling their economy.

“There is not enough electricity, there is not enough water. There are social conditions on an intolerable level at the moment. So we need more money but we need also a political solution to this war.”

Prior to the open conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, this year has seen the US and European Union halt aid to Palestine in protest against militant Hamas’ victory in the country’s elections.

|AD|Since late June, Israel has carried out a military offensive in the Gaza Strip, following the Palestinian kidnapping of an Israeli soldier. Violence has seen more than 200 Palestinians killed, while 11 Israeli civilians have been wounded by rocket fire from Gaza.

About 50 of the countries and organisations which attended Thursday's Lebanon aid conference are expected to stay on to discuss the Palestinian situation.

So far, about 39 percent of the target of US$330m has been raised, and Jan Eliasson, Sweden's foreign minister said, “The humanitarian situation is critical.”

Mr Egeland also warned that, in the 25 years he had been visiting the Palestinian territories, "I've never seen so much hatred and bitterness as during my last visit there."

Israel and Palestinian militants have been urged by the UN to to cease hostilities immediately.